Lower Darwen to get a new official footpath

Blackburn with Council is to start moves for create a Public Right of Way for the track.

It stretches from Swan Farm Close in Lower Darwen to a kissing gate at the River Darwen.

Councillors on the borough Planning and Highways Committee approved on Thursday the beginning of the legal process to include it on the definitive map of public footpaths in the borough.

Blackburn South and Lower Darwen ward's Conservative Cllr Jacquie Slater appealed for its inclusion on the map telling colleagues: "This is really important to local people.

"It is so needed."

The council's Public Rights of Way Officer Paul Withington told the committee that there was 'a quantity of historical documentary evidence' that the track had been used as a footpath for the required 20 years, adding that his investigations supported the view that 'the route is incorrectly recorded on the definitive map and that it is historically a footpath'.