Or You Could Just Accept That Your Wants Don't Trump Property Rights?

Mrs Daintree has now started a petition called 'Fill That Gap' which she is hoping will show public support.

Posters have been put up in the local church and shop in support of the campaign.

She added that one option was to bend the boardwalk around the private area of land but that it reached so far out the shingle might not be strong enough to support it that far down the beach.

 Well, you're at an impasse then. The council don't own the land, and the people that do own it don't want to sell. So what do you expect to solve with a petition?

What does the council have to say? Given it committed public money to this without properly investigating the circumstances?

'The Council remains committed to finding a solution to the problem of the gap.

'Options to close the gap are currently being investigated and it is the intention to bring the details of these options back to Councillors for a decision in the next month or two.

'We are aware that there remains strong feeling among the community about the need to close the gap in the Boardwalk, and to potentially extend the Boardwalk at a later date.'

 Really? Or is it just one person, enabled by all the usual agitators? Comments are illuminating:

I live in one of the houses in your photographs of Shoreham Beach and am in possession of the facts. I rarely see disabled people using the boardwalk but see lots of children on cycles, scooters etc using it. To say that this is a facility for the disabled is to exaggerate the benefit to disabled people. If I were disabled or pushing a disabled person in a wheelchair, I would much rather go half a mile down the road to Widewater where there is a lovely footpath bounded by a cycle lane which is off a much higher standard than this boardwalk. As this footpath and cycle path stretches along the beach all the way to Goring (which must be at least five miles away) disabled people are certainly not prevented from enjoying our lovely beaches. This petition is merely an attempt to intimidate the elderly owners of the house to permit Adur District Council who knew that they did not own the land before building works commenced to build the boardwalk, to agree terms with them.

- Sam , Brighton, 05/2/2013 21:06

As a local resident in possession of the full facts behind this fiasco, I can advise that Adur council tried to buy this land from the owners as recently as 2005, without success. In 2011 without consulting the residents West Sussex CC registered the land. Convenient for Adur, who then proceeded to build the boardwalk without planning permission or consulting residents. The land registry subsequently overturned WSCCs bogus attempt to register the land when the real owners produced their deeds. This article along with Adur DC, SBRA, FSOB are now trying to bully residents in submission.This is not acceptable and really hope they fail. We've arrived at this laughable position because the Council tried do something behind closed doors, without planning and consultation . It's quite clear to me who is in the wrong.

- Beachman , Shoreham by Sea, United Kingdom, 05/2/2013 13:57

It's quite clear to me too. And it's not the owners of the land..