RAMBLERS are fighting plans to close a footpath in Winchester because too few people use it.

Hampshire County Council proposes to take the rare step of extinguishing the right of way along a footpath that runs between Sparsholt and Up Somborne near West Wood.

It wants to close the path after a request from farmer Philip Meitner, of Moor Court Farm, that the path is not needed for public use.

It runs for about 400 metres but then stops into a dead end.

The county council's regulatory committee will discuss the issue at its meeting tomorrow. It has consulted widely and the parish council has no objections to the closure.

A report to the committee said: "The footpath is not heavily used due to it being a dead end. Bridleway 10 runs parallel approximately 300 metres east."

The Ramblers Association opposes the move and may force a public inquiry into the issue.

Alan Marlow, footpath secretary of the Winchester group, said that the council should not be closing public rights of way.

Mr Marlow said the path is only a dead end because of a historical quirk. When the council first drew up a definitive map of rights of way in the 1950s it was done on a parish by parish basis. So the path was earmarked by Sparsholt Parish Council but not by neighbouring Ashley.

Subsequent attempts to reopen the route into the Ashley parish have failed, the council report said.

Mr Marlow said: "The footpath stops at the parish boundary. There were probably landowners in Ashley on its parish council who didn't want to see these rights of way on the map.

"It's our view that walkers can contribute to the rural economy and that the council should be looking at ways of opening paths up.

"The path has low use at the moment because it does not go anywhere. The landowner will say it is not needed. But if it was extended it would be used.

"It could become a very useful part of the network around Farley Mount and Sparsholt. It is pretty rare to have the county council trying to close a path." Mr Marlow said the association would seriously consider pressing for a public inquiry.