WILTSHIRE Council has taken the rare decision to neither support or recommend refusal for a community’s bid to get a route through Codford classed as a byway when the decision goes forward to be made by the secretary of state.

Known locally as Military Road or Army Road, the route was built to service military needs during the Second World War and runs around St Mary’s Church in the village.

Locals from The Codford Residents’ Group (CRG) brought an application to Wiltshire Council in January in an attempt to get it recognised as a byway, after they claim landowner Josh Stratton had stopped people from using the route.

At a meeting of the Western Area Planning Committee on Wednesday (November 2) at County Hall in Trowbridge, councillors voted not to reject or support the order due to conflicting information.

Chairman Cllr Christopher Newbury, who represents the area, said: “There are two groups of people in Codford who have a different aim.

“We do have an option whether we support the order and the council would be taking part in promoting the order to the inspector, or whether we take a step back and don’t support the order.”

The conflicting information centres on how many people have used the route between 1983-2003 and whether there was sufficient signs and fencing to indicate it was not a public right of way.

Mr Stratton, who owns East Farm, said: “I stopped the use of the farm road in 2012 because the use of the road is increasing from being a few people until it became a lot of people who I don’t know, who are not particularly nice to me or my family, dogs out of control and children running around getting in the way of farm traffic.”

The decision will now go to the secretary of state, who could hold a hearing but is more likely to hold a public inquiry into whether the order should be approved, with a decision expected in August 2017.

Speaking after the meeting, David Delius from the CRG said: “We are disappointed and surprised that the council didn’t support the order because the evidence, we thought, was strong.”