Proposal for a Shropshire village bridleway to be decided on by Staffordshire planners
Whether a proposed bridleway from a Shropshire village across the Staffordshire border is to be given the go-ahead will be up to Staffordshire County Council, a government inspector has ruled.
The decision follows an application from a resident in Claverley, in Shropshire, who asked for a bridleway to connect the village with nearby Bobbington, which sits over the border in Staffordshire.
As an application had to be made to both Shropshire Council and Staffordshire County Council due to the bridleway spanning both counties, it would have created a planning "anomaly", according to documents to be presented to Shropshire councillors on Thursday.
The report says if one of the authorities were to approve the application for their end of the bridleway, then the planning committee from the other authority would find it going ahead without their approval.
The proposed bridleway is set to run from Claverley, near the Rookery, through Gatacre Park Farm across the border and on to Bobbington via the County Road near Home Farm and Gatacre.
The decision on who gets to determine whether the bridleway goes ahead was sent to Michael Gove the Secretary of State for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
An inspector acting on behalf of Mr Gove said that "it would be sensible for one authority to deal with the entirety of the route” and ordered Staffordshire County Council to make the decision.
Plans for the bridleway from Claverley to Bobbington will now go before the planning committee of Staffordshire County Council later in the year.
