A WICKHAMFORD woman has walked a path to victory in her campaign to preserve the rights of villagers to use a footpath.

Jean Ford, aged 64, of Pitchers Hill, has finally succeeded in her application to open a public footpath which covers a 1,120m route from Burnt Road to Pitchers Hill.

Jean's campaign began five years ago when she was out walking with members of her family and found her route was closed off, forcing them to lift pushchairs over a barbed wire fence for their walk to continue.

She wondered why the route, which used to be a track for people to get to allotments, was fenced off when people regularly used it, and contacted Worcestershire County Council, which said she would have to gain evidence that the route was used by others as a footpath.

The council asked villagers to testify that they had been using the path for many years, although two landowners raised objections, saying designation as a public footpath would lead to lots of people walking across their land. Steve Waring, definitive map officer for Worcestershire County Council, said: "They were concerned about having lots of people walking across their land, but we managed to resolve these objections."

The route is now officially a public footpath and Jean said she was grateful for the help of the villagers in getting the footpath open.

"Now it's open, it will be open for the future of the village and everyone can enjoy it," said Jean.

"I hope the villagers will now have many happy years walking this path."

Karen Cotton, rights of way clerk at the county council, said it had been planned to open the path in March, but this was delayed due to the foot and mouth outbreak.

"It's not unusual for cases to take this long, although the foot and mouth crisis did cause a setback. We believed this footpath existed and the legal process we've been through has now made that reality," she said.