Don’t blame the ramblers

Why are you blaming a charity for possible delays to the Manchester Grove Village project (28 May, page 12)? The blame quite clearly lies with either the local authority or the private finance initiative consortium.

Local government has a statutory duty to keep open rights of way, so Manchester should have built the possibility of a challenge into the planning process and told the consortium. If it did warn the consortium, the consortium is also to blame.

Many such challenges succeed because council officers seem unable to follow their own and statutory procedures; they end up paying unnecessary costs and wasting taxpayers’ money because of their own ineptitude. Surely the councils’ own rights of way officers were consulted? Was anybody consulted? The officers and any consultation would have warned of the possibility of a challenge and the need to negotiate.

Of course there is balance between accessibility and the need to stop crime, but closing more than 300 alleys seems excessive. Many tenants on housing estates are already being inconvenienced by crime without those who should be protecting them inconveniencing them even more.

Don’t blame the charity: I’m sure it would prefer not to spend its funds in this way protecting the rights of poorer people, whom Housing Today usually champions so well.