With effect from 1st April 2007 all applications to divert of extinguish footpaths under the Highways Act are a matter for Essex Council.

Please contact Essex County Council

Applications can be made under the Town and Country Planning Act where a right of way needs to be moved or stopped up as a result of development. The Council incur considerable expenses in the making of a Public Path Order. It is Council policy to recoup the costs of advertising and to make an administrative charge towards the cost of making the Order. We therefore require applicants to sign an undertaking to reimburse these expenses before the Council processes the Order. Applicants are reminded that there are many stages in making an Order and the statutory procedure will normally take a minimum of 12 months from start to finish.

It must be emphasised that a footpath or bridleway must not be diverted or stopped-up until an order has been confirmed. any preliminary obstruction of, or interference with the right of way concerned is an offence.

It is important that where a public right of way is affected by a proposed development in so far as it affects a right of way, the development should not be started and the right of way should remain fully available to the public, until the statutory action dealing with the right of way has been completed. These are dealt with under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.