GOVERNMENT planning inspector Susan Arnott was caught in the crossfire of a bitter right of way row at Haltwhistle this week.

In one trench were local residents and Northumberland County Council, who claimed a track at Melkridge had been widely used by members of the public for almost a century.

Returning the fire were land owners the Halbert family, who insisted claims that the track was extensively used by dog walkers and quad bikes had “no basis in reality.”

Mrs Arnott must now decide who is in the right after a two-day public inquiry into the hotly disputed lonnen, following its closure by the Halberts two years ago.

At the inquiry, Louise Halbert defended her family‘s decision to gate off the 50-yard lonnen, which runs next to her home at Melkridge Hall.

Mrs Halbert insisted the family had owned the lonnen since her parents, Maureen, and the late Stuart Halbert, purchased the hall and its grounds in 1959.

She has a lifelong association with Melkridge Hall and is married to Gary Lydiate, the owner of Haltwhistle’s Kilfrost factory.

Despite statements from farmers and other local people who said the lonnen was a public route, Mrs Halbert said she had only seen it used by farmers with tractors.

She added: “The lane was used rarely. In my experience I have never seen a bicycle, or a dog walker, there. I can’t recall a quad bike using it.

“I absolutely do not recognise the uses mentioned in those statements. In my view they have no basis in reality.”

Mrs Halbert referred to a conveyance relating to the ownership of the property and said: “My father died in 1998. My mother is the owner of the estate, which includes the lonnen.”

Mrs Halbert recalled a conversation from her childhood in the 1960s, in which her father said a gate at the south side of the lonnen had been stolen.

He chose not to replace the gate, but went on to block the route once a year, balancing heavy scaffolding planks across large industrial drums.

Mrs Halbert said she never knew why the lonnen was closed off, but it was something her parents dealt with, and her father said it “had to be done”.

She suggested that one reason could have been for safety purposes in the early 1970s, when there were subsidence issues. But she insisted that he continued to block the route until 1997, the year before his death.

However, Northumberland County Council insisted there was “compelling evidence” of public use by pedestrians, vehicles and horse riders, before the gates went up in March 2013.

The county council supported Melkridge Parish Council’s application for the lonnen, which runs from the U7070 main road through Melkridge, to the A69 trunk road, to be added to a definitive map of public rights of way.

County council definitive maps officer John McErlane said: “The evidence of public use is compelling. We took a report to the council’s planning and environment committee and it concluded there was sufficient evidence that a restricted byway existed over the route.”

County council solicitor Peter Bracken said: “It is the council’s case that this has been used for 90 years by pedestrians, vehicles and horse riders.”

Melkridge farmer John Smith Jackson, of Hightown Farm, north of the A69, said that from 1980 onwards, he has regularly used the lonnen to access a field to the south of the trunk road and for walking his children to school.

He added he had never previously encountered gates, barriers, or any other resistance to the use of the lonnen.

He mentioned one occasion when he noticed a “red tape mesh” had gone up around an area of subsidence on the route, as well as a small trench.

Veteran farmer Arnold Bell said he used the lonnen between the 1950s and the 1970s, including a 15-year period between 1965 and 1980 when he worked as a milkman.

He said: “It is the main access to the farm at Hightown and three houses there. It is the most direct footpath across the A69.

“I have never noticed any restrictions. I was never stopped or turned back.

“I delivered milk to Mrs Halbert at Melkridge Hall. They would know I used the lane, and it was never questioned.”

In June 2013, the county council approved an application from Melkridge Parish Council for the route to be reinstated.

But resistance from the Halbert family led to the matter being placed in the hands of the Planning Inspectorate.

Mrs Arnott is expected to make a decision about the route over the coming weeks.