Village footpath safety fears after electric fence torn down
AN act of vandalism has thrown the spotlight back on to a long-standing local footpath issue.
For years campaigners in the villages of Cross and Axbridge in Somerset have been campaigning for a safe footpath between the two villages.
People from Cross have to go to Axbridge for shops, the chemist and other goods, and children from the village have to use the path to get to the local primary school in Axbridge.
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There are also some nice pubs in Cross which people from Axbridge like to support, and dog walkers use the route in the countryside regularly.
The path has been the subject of much controversy over the past decade, and campaigners say the road is too dangerous for all sorts of reasons.
Not only do large lorries and other traffic use the road, but there are dangers from cattle who graze on the land nearby.
Anyone who has ever been attacked by cattle while out walking their dog knows how terrifying this is, it is a recognised fact cattle can be dangerous to pedestrians and there are several incidents reported nationally on an almost daily basis.
In May 2021 a dog walker on the path between Cross to Axbridge was seriously injured by a stampeding cow and was hospitalised for six weeks, his injuries were severe.
The year before that there was a terrifying incident on the same path where a young child was separated from his mother during a cattle stampede.
Following these incidents the landowners put up an electric fence alongside the road but last week vandals tore the fence down and local campaigners say it was not enough to make the road safe anyway.
And it looks like there are no plans to replace the fence.
One of the landowners Paul Webber, who owns the cattle in the Lukins field which is at the Axbridge end of the footpath, posted on Axbridge Community Facebook: “Someone has stolen the electric fence posts from Homefield Townsend farm, this fence was to protect walkers using the foot path to cross, from cows and calves grazing the field.
“For this reason I am not replacing the posts, and will be only grazing young stock there in the future.”
Compton Bishop parish councillor Terry Mason is planning on taking a petition to the House of Commons over the problem.
He said: “Local families will not let their children walk the footpath for fear of injury.
“Residents have tried walking in the road to avoid the risk of injury on the footpath, only to find themselves confronted by HGVs coming from both east and west and had to throw themselves on to the bank to avoid being run over.
“The Parish Council have made numerous attempts to contact both farmers to discuss putting a fence along the length, and to resurface it in a way suitable for wheelchair users and prams and for cyclists to avoid the risks on the narrow A371 road which runs alongside the footpath and is used by very heavy HGVs. The single strand of electric fence wire is not sufficient to keep stampeding cattle from trampling walkers.”
The Cross-Axbridge safe path campaign has been running for many years and the group meets regularly to try and secure a safe path between both villages.