A parish council has lost its bid to have a footpath in Holmer Green officially recognised after residents reported walking along it for decades.

Little Missenden Parish Council applied to Buckinghamshire Council to add the route between Watchet Lane and Parish Piece to the county’s official map of public rights of way.

The application, submitted in February 2021, was backed by 23 user-evidence forms and an additional witness statement describing use of the path between 1947 and 2021.

The parish council argued that members of the public had used the route without obstruction for many years and said residents wanted to protect it and regain access after gates began to be locked.

It also submitted a five-page survey, map extracts, photographs, parish council minutes and correspondence in support of its claim.

But Buckinghamshire Council has rejected the application after concluding there was insufficient evidence to establish that the route was a public footpath.

Council officers said historical notices describing it as a “private footpath” interrupted the period of continuous public use required for the claim to succeed.

Evidence showed that similar notices had been displayed at different points in the route’s history, including around 1989, while parish council minutes from 1930 referred to a sign stating: “Private footpath to school only.”

An internal council memo from 1951 recorded the parish council as saying the path had been created solely for schoolchildren and was closed when the school was not in use.

Officers concluded that the relevant 20-year period was between 1969 and 1989. Six witnesses reported using the route throughout that period, but three had used it to reach the local school.

The council said access connected with attending the school would be considered a private use rather than evidence of a public right of way.

The path runs alongside Holmer Green Senior School and a nursery on land owned by Buckinghamshire Council.

A 125-year lease with Holmer Green Senior School began in 2012.

The authority’s report acknowledged that user evidence suggested people had used the route from 1947 until the gates were locked around 2020.

However, it concluded that the path was originally established as a route to school and had only gradually come to be used by the wider public.

The report said: “Evidence indicates that this route was founded as a local ‘route to school’ which has slowly evolved to be used by the wider public.”

It added that the landowner had demonstrated that it did not intend to dedicate the route as a public right of way.

Buckinghamshire Council formally rejected the application on July 31.

Little Missenden Parish Council has the right to appeal the decision to the Planning Inspectorate within 28 days.