A CARDIGAN farm park owner claimed in court that he cannot be guilty of obstructing a footpath by nailing gates shut because it isn’t a legal route.

Lyn Jenkins has been in a long-running dispute with Ceredigion council over the stretch of the coastal path between Mwnt and Ferwig, which Jenkins insists is unsafe and should not be open to the public.

Jenkins, who represented himself, has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges of obstructing the section of the path between 26 February and 5 June last year.

Aberystwyth magistrates heard that witnesses, including Ceredigion councillor Gethin James who had walked the section of the path on 22 March, had found access gates nailed shut.

But Jenkins argued that the footpath cannot be legally valid as the number designating it isn’t correct. He also claimed that the stretch of path is unsafe and has insisted his fight against the path is to “try to protect lives”.

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