THE owners of a contested stretch of land by a 19th Century viaduct have said that a petition to open the site to the public will not make any difference.

Heywood Bridge Caravan Park in Read has said there was no way that the footpath would be opened to the public despite a petition being signed by 2,100 people.

The Grade II-listed Martholme Viaduct lies between Great Harwood and Read but was closed in 2001 after the foot and mouth outbreak.

A long-running campaign has sought to persuade the owners to open the 800 metre-long route to the public.

Calls were made in June for Lancashire County Council to throw its weight behind the campaign for the viaduct which was built to carry the Great Harwood Loop of the East Lancashire line over the River Calder.

The petition was launched with an aim to attract 1,000 signatures by the end of the month and was also aimed at Sustrans, a charity aimed at enabling people to choose healthier, cleaner and cheaper journeys, which owns the viaduct.

Richard Hanson, a director at the caravan park, said: "There is no way that the footpath will be opened.

"It has never been open to the public in the first place.

"It was closed in 2001 to us because of the foot and mouth outbreak and everyone who walked on the path was trespassing.

"If you have a look at the petition there are people from as far as Hawaii who signed it so it's not as if it's all local people.

"The path never existed to the public in the first place and it will never be open to them.

"We are reasonable people but we have a business to run and we can't have a situation where people are walking a metre from the windows of people's caravans."

Barbara Sharples, from the Great Harwood Prospects Panel, said: "The signatures have been collected from an online petition and hard copies that have been placed in shops and pubs.

"They will be sent to the county council later this week and more details on the campaign will be released once they have it.

"At the start of the campaign there were many separate groups trying to do the same thing but now we are all together.

"We are fighting hard to get the footpath open to the public."