CAMPAIGNERS will today lobby councillors to force Sainsbury’s to remove a blocked up pathway used by elderly people to get to their local shopping centre.

Councillors will decide whether a public right of way has been cut off by the supermarket giant’s decision to put a metal barrier next to the rear goods entrance to its Lordshill store.

Residents complained they had been forced to walk miles around the barrier, up and down a steep path. A petition attracted 600 signatures calling for its removal.

Sainsbury’s said that with a newly-refurbished store and a growing number of online sales for delivery the short cut was no longer safe for residents. The firm and its landlord, British Land Capita Trust, refute evidence put forward by campaigners that a public right of way exists.