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1.5 The Gateacre Society was founded in 1974 as a local civic/amenity/conservation society (registered at that time with The Civic Trust). Its Constitution lists one of its purposes as "To secure the preservation, conservation, development and improvement of features of general public amenity and of features of historic and public interest in the area of benefit". The boundary between the areas of the Gateacre Society and the Woolton Society (which was founded in 1972 with similar aims) runs along Hollytree Road and Acrefield Road and the two societies have always worked closely together.
1.6 The Gateacre Society believes that footpaths are a significant feature of the Woolton/Gateacre area, and play an important part in encouraging people to walk rather than use cars for local journeys. The fact that some footpaths attract anti-social behaviour is not, we feel, a valid reason for sealing them off, as it is the presence of law-abiding citizens passing along them which helps create a sense of 'community supervision' within the area. These views were expressed as long ago as 1994, when the Society participated in Merseyside Environmental Trust's 'Find a Footpath' survey and sent a list and map of 21 local paths (including the one that is the subject of the current Claim) to the Council's Planning Department.
1.7 In order to establish who had built the wall, we contacted the owners of the land. A Land Registry search (undertaken on 31 March 2016) revealed these to be Liverpool Mutual Homes Limited ("Land and buildings at Glenacres, Acrefield Road, Liverpool", title no. MS5325977) and CPM Securities Limited ("Acrefield Bank, Woolton Park, Liverpool", title no. MS402176). Acrefield Bank was the name of the building that previously stood on the site of Byron Court. An internet search indicated that CPM Securities Ltd had become Hayne Securities Ltd in 2004.
1.8 A telephone call by Mike Chitty to Mr Christopher George (Company Secretary and Operations Director of Hayne Securities Ltd) on 20 April 2016 revealed that his company was indeed the owner of the freehold of Byron Court, and that he knew about the wall. He said the wall had been built by the Byron Court (Liverpool) Management Co Ltd - the directors of which are the lessees of the individual Byron Court flats - but that he had not as yet given formal consent for its construction. He said the reason he had been given for the building of the wall was to prevent the use of the road by "joyriders". He said the person to talk to was Mr John Evans of Sutton Kersh (the Byron Court managing agents). Telephone calls to Mr Evans were not returned, but an email was eventually received from him (11 May 2016, see Annex 10) stating simply: "I can confirm that all reasonable enquiries were made including those via Liverpool City Council Planning Departments whom have further confirmed that no right of way recorded anywhere".
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