Campaigners welcome progress on Lambridge Wood footpath application

Campaigners against the closure of a Lambridge Wood footpath are delighted to hear this week that Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) have confirmed they are starting to look at the application for a designated footpath.

The closure of the path which campaigners say has been used for more than 40 years, was closed by landowner Nigel Barklem in March 2025.   A previous application was turned down by OCC in 2022 after taking 10 years for a decision to be made!  At the time, with one exception, all the witnesses came from Lambridge Wood Road and not the many walkers from Henley, Bix and the surrounding villages.

John Carrell from the Lambridge Wood campaign said, “The official handling the application at OCC has been contact this week to say they were starting work on our application which is very good news as it oftens takes longer to do these things.

“They will now study all the witness statements and do a site visit again and then they will be interviewing our witnesses – all 30 of them in October. With a bit of luck we will get a decision at the end of year or January.”

“We’ve all been surprised at Nigel Barklem’s opposition, and we hope that he will join us and support the application.  He has said he had to put up the fence to do remedial work on the wood but registration as a right of way does not prevent him from doing this remedial work providing it is temporary.  We can’t think why he is it opposing it if he really loves the wood.”