MY attention has been drawn to the report about the barrier in Oakland Drive (Ledbury Reporter, October 22).

I cannot agree that the government inspector who conducted the Lawful Development Certificate planning appeal last March "ruled that Herefordshire Council had no legal obligation to take down" the fence across the highway at the southern end of Oakland Drive.

What the inspector said at the inquiry and repeated in his decision letter was: "My responsibility in this case is confined to the very narrow remit of reviewing the local planning authority's decision (his italics, not mine) to describe the address of the land concerned as they did and to state the reasons for lawfulness as they did, when they issued the Lawful Development Certificate."

He, therefore had authority to 'rule' on those two matters and nothing else.

It remains the fact that whether or not, as he claimed in the decision letter, the inspector could "see no legal requirement or common law right for the obstructions (his plural, not mine) between Oakland Drive and Biddulph Way to be removed", they do most certainly exist but not under planning law.

It is an offence under the Highways Act to obstruct the highway. There are at least three sections of the Act, which include legal requirements for highways to be kept clear of obstruction.

Under one of them a heavy fine can be incurred. Another imposes on the local highway authority not only a statutory duty to protect and assert the public's right of way but also to put matters right if a parish council informs them that a highway is obstructed.

It is in pursuit of the public's rights to use the highway that Ledbury's town councillors are making their present enquiries of the highway authority.

SYLVIA M PICK, Woodfield Road, Ledbury.