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For more info -
or to support us,
please get in touch:
prowl@manx.net
PROWL, 1 Castle Street,
Castletown, IM9 1LF
Or call Ian on:
01624 837 059
Attorney General contacts PROWL supporters
The Attorney General has recently written to each of the PROWL supporters who provided him with legal affadavits.
This is the next step towards a fair solution to the Langness dispute - a fair solution for all Islanders.
A full New Year update appears below.
On behalf of the many hundreds of PRoWL supporters, we’d like to thank you very much for taking the trouble last summer to have your affidavit signed and passed on to us for forwarding. It was important that the Attorney General understood that for more than 21 years the circular footpath passing around the lighthouse had been an unquestioned right of way.
You’ll probably have received a letter from the Attorney General’s Chambers explaining the next steps in the process. The provision of copies of the affidavits to the landowners’ advocate is standard practice, and nothing for you to worry about. When he sees the weight of firm evidence for the path having become a highway, the advocate should see how little chance he has of refuting it.
PRoWL welcomes the moves being made by the Attorney General’s Chambers, and would encourage you to take any further step which might be necessary in order that your evidence be given the respect it deserves.
You may be contacted by an advocate or other agent on behalf of another interested party, such as the landowner, either by letter or phone call. Whether you agree to respond or not is entirely up to you! You may wish to decline to talk on the phone, and only respond to letters. If you are uncomfortable about it, you are under no obligation to respond to any approach at all. PRoWL doesn’t recommend that you should refuse; we’re just advising that the choice is yours.
The advocate may well make no contact at all, but PRoWL would be interested to be kept informed of any dealings you might have. If you have any concerns, either now or in the future, then please get in touch and we can discuss them.
With thanks for your much-appreciated support.
The PRoWL steering group
PROWL has also written to David Anderson, the new DoT Minister:
Dear Mr. Anderson,
May I begin by congratulating you on your electoral success, and wish you all the best in new role as the Island’s Transport Minister.
I enclose a sheet of background information, showing how the current state of affairs regarding the Langness footpath issue has been reached.
You may remember that a year ago the Council of Ministers was misled into supposing a) that the only footpaths on Langness were ‘permissive’
b) that a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ was the only way forward
c) that the people involved with PRoWL had a private grievance against the new landowner, and
d) that Manx people would complain a little at first, but then be quite relaxed about seeing the loss of their long-standing rights.
The truth of the matter is very different, namely:
a) the footpaths around and across Langness have been traditionally used, without any permission being granted or denied
b) that under Manx law these routes have become ‘highways’ which the Department of Transport is able to formalise as Public Rights of Way
c) that the people involved with PRoWL have a genuine and longstanding interest in the Manx countryside and coast, Manx heritage and rights of way in general, and
d) that Manx people continue to be affronted by the arbitrary removal of a favoured footpath, and continue to join the ranks of registered supporters
We are very pleased to see that letters have been issued by the Attorney General’s chambers, acting on behalf of the DoT, ( see enclosed ) to all those who provided affidavits, and trust that this new momentum will be maintained. We have every confidence that the people who took the trouble to have their evidence countersigned by a Commissioner for Oaths will stay the course and be willing to repeat their statement in open court if necessary.
I wonder whether I might make a couple of smaller points about the way forward. Firstly, you may recall that when the public was first excluded from part of the circular path, this only effected the area immediately adjacent to the lighthouse cottages’ wall ( though obviously this blocked the circular route, and people had to go back the way they had come ). The subsequent removal of the kissing gates in the east coast fence raised the distance obstructed from 100 to 250 metres, but without obvious benefits to anyone in the holiday cottages. The only reason that PRoWL can see for this secondary exclusion of the public is that the landowner can appear to be reasonable and conciliatory in agreeing to a compromise solution – removing the later obstruction but being allowed to retain the only obstruction that really mattered to him in the first place! PRoWL’s position is that nothing short of the designation as a Public Right of Way of the entire circular path will do. If there is a case for a marginal re-routing of the path to a line a little further from the eastern wall, while still maintaining the circularity of the route around the lighthouse, then this is a consideration for the future.
My second point concerns the rights of people with dogs. Let me say from the beginning that I fully accept that with rights go responsibilities, and that owners should always keep their dog under control and clean up any mess made by the dog. Nevertheless, as someone who has walked extensively throughout the British Isles, including all the National Parks and Long Distance Paths, the only route I have found barred to a walker with a dog has been the section of the Manx Coastal Path between the Sound and Port Erin, where an agreement between the DoT and the landowner prohibits dogs ( however much under control ) from being taken along that route. I believe that this was a mistake on the part of the DoT at the time, and should not be used as a precedent when it comes to Langness. When a Public Right of Way is established around and across Langness, it should be on the same terms as the 99% of all other Manx footpaths, where dog owners continue to behave responsibly and there are already penalties in existence for those who don’t.
Hoping that the matter of Langness footpaths will soon be brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and with every good wish for your time in your new Department.
See extracts from the A.G.'s original
letter to PROWL - Please click here
See the position of the Mariners' Graveyard? - Please click here
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See the position of the Mariners' Graveyard? - Please click here
Working to
preserve access around Langness
for our children and grandchildren
for our children and grandchildren