THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A group of villagers have defeated a Saudi Prince in a battle over an historic footpath.
Prince Khalid Abdullah came up against a group of more than 700 villagers in sleepy Shipbourne in Kent after he closed off a footpath - which dates back to Roman times - running through his plush Fairlawne Estate.
Prince Abdullah - who owns a string of top horses and has won almost all the European classic races - banished villagers from using part of the Greensland Way footpath which runs through his land and behind the village's St Giles Church.
But the billionaire prince - the first cousin of Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and brother-in-law of the late King Fahd - didn't count on the villagers mounting a campaign against him.
And now, after a three year battle, locals have won the right to use the path after the Planning Inspectorate overturned a decision by Kent County Council to ban locals from the path.
The council acted on information from the Prince, saying that dog walkers were worrying his sheep, that the path invaded his privacy and was a threat to the security of the estate.
But locals were left fuming after not being consulted over the footpath and mounted an appeal to get it re-opened to the public after fences were installed blocking them from the path.
And on Friday last week, they were successful after the Planning Inspectorate - which held a public inquiry into the closure of the footpath in June this year - announced its decision that the path should be re-opened to the public. » | Friday, November 25, 2011
