The public has a legal right to access a rural pathway that has been used for that purpose for some time, even if it cuts through private property, the Ramblers Association claimed on Monday. Referring to a 2005 court judgment, the president of the environmental NGO, Ingram Bondin, said it was illegal to block pathways regularly used by the public even if they were located on private land. The authorities, he said, should intervene to address the worrying trend. “The owner of a private road that has been open to the public cannot close it or bar the public from accessing it,” the judgment stated. “Once the owner has permitted or tolerated the public walking through it, while retaining his proprietor rights over the road, this road becomes public in its use, and serves as a passage of transit,” it continued. No-entry signs and gates have been popping up all over the countryside in recent weeks, prompting questions from the public about the right of access to parts of the countryside. Bondin said it was now down to enforcement. The association was ready to initiate legal action to protect the most popular routes but it would not be shouldering the burden on its own. “The...