Journalist Christy Parker examines the ‘right of way’ issue at Ardmore’s Cliff House Hotel

Ardmore residents angered over a closed ‘right of way’ at the Cliff House Hotel say they will fight on to have the access re-opened regardless of the conclusion reached in an imminent Ombudsman’s report. The Ombudsman’s decision is expected this month on complaints made by local residents against Waterford County Council’s handling of the issue. “Hopefully the Ombudsman will vindicate our argument but meantime we will continue our campaign to have the right of way re-opened,” said one local last weekend, though declining to be named.

The dispute began in April 2008 when the hotel owners Valshan Ltd, refused to re-open a step way linking a higher road and the road that transcends the hotel car park towards Ardmore cliffs, the village and other amenities. The access, which was closed during development of the €20m hotel, is one of several such ‘right of ways’ linking the two roads.

Locals claim ‘the Steps’, as they are colloquially known, link one public road to another and thus form a traditional right of way that dates back many decades. Some suspect Valshan’s motives arise from an attitude of ‘exclusivity’ that seeks to minimise contact between guests at the luxurious, €200 per night facility and passing locals or hill walkers. Valshan for their part, insist the steps are their property, do not constitute a right of way at all and that they have closed them due to their bad repair.

The protestors’ disdain for the proprietors of Cliff House Hotel is matched by their disillusionment with Waterford County Council. Following initial complaints, in April 2008, the Council’s Planning department appointed executive technician David Regan to investigate. Mr. Regan’s report noted that the disputed area had been “permanently fenced off” and that “no exemption exists for works of this nature.” On his recommendation, May 8th 2008, the County Council issued notice to Valshan to restore the access. In response, Valshan claimed, through its architects, Coughlan DeKeyser Associates that their “legal advice is that there is no right of way” and said the steps had been closed “due to being unsafe.”

Enforcement did not proceed and in October 2008, Waterford County Council explained that ‘warning letters are issued when a complaint is received.’ Given that there was a dispute, they now considered it “a matter for the civil courts.”

Matters abated until November 3rd 2008 when 13 sworn Affidavits were handed to Waterford Council, each one arguing through personal experience that the Steps had been, by long tradition, a right of way. Five more were subsequently forwarded. The witnesses include a former proprietor of the original Cliff House hotel, locals and long-term visitors. Mention is made of the Steps’s practical, aesthetic and cultural consideration. Crucially, the complainants included a map, submitted with their planning application (PD 04/1924-site layout) by Coughlan DeKeyser no less, indicating the Steps as a right of way.

Sucked back into the fray, County Council Planner, Brian White, now viewed the matter as “a dispute between Valshan, the community and the Council that could linger and fester.” He believed all “reasonable efforts with the land owner, including 3rd party arbitration if possible,” should be attempted “before referring it to our solicitor.”

Still reluctant to enforce its own order, on November 26th 2008, the County Council wrote to Valshan, reminding them of the stipulation on their own architect’s map, advising again that the Council was “obliged under Roads and Planning Legislation to protect Rights of Way” and requesting “a copy of your legal advice referred to in your correspondence of 27/6/08.” The Council further asked if Valshan proposed to carry out remedial works on the steps and to open same thereafter. Valshan remained unmoved.

On December 15th, Mr. White delivered a verdict of sorts. He informed locals, by letter, that “having examined legal precedence in relation to Right of ways, I regret to inform you that Waterford County Council is not in a position to legally establish that a Right of Way exists in this location” and, “in particular had not carried out maintenance work on the steps in living memory” and therefore could not assuredly claim it existed.

A month later, Mr White elaborated that the steps were substandard, too narrow, did not have a handrail and were not constructed to the standard for public access. This reasoning, some observers noted, could invalidate ‘right of way status pertaining to all step ways in the vicinity.

The Council official’s uncertainty about proving right of way legitimacy centres on a number of details. One reservation arises from an affidavit’s testimony that a previous owner who had developed the car park, “created” the steps as they presently stand from “a slope with a few rough steps.” In Mr. White’s analysis, this constitutes “a clear distinction between a permission granted by the landowner to members of the public to walk on a pathway across private property and the dedication of these pathways to the public at large.”  Perhaps even more profoundly, he finds that the while a right of way by definition “starts and ends in a public place,” it appears that ‘the Steps’ leads (or emanates from) a private car park.

In any case, on January 19th 2009, the residents referred its records on the County Council’s role to the Ombudsman. Nine days later it further reminded him that, despite the absence of Council maintenance on the Steps, “public money” had been used on remedial work in 1999, through the Ardmore Enterprise Co-op, supervised by FAS.