LANDOWNERS could scupper a plan to create a new pathway on the former railway line between Addingham and Bolton Abbey.

One of the main owners of the land over which the path would cross is refusing to negotiate with the Millennium charity Sustrans, said Addingham Parish Council chairman Gordon Campbell.

Councillor Campbell told a council meeting that the landowner, who was a farmer, did not want to be named but was refusing point blank to discuss the plan.

Sustrans wants to create a bridlepath, cyclepath and footpath between the two villages and the plan has been greeted with enthusiasm by many Addingham residents. The parish council, however, has remained reluctant to support the plan, saying that it could increase parking problems in the village.

And a meeting organised by one of the plan's supporters, Main Street resident Andy Scull, will go ahead without an official parish council representative present.

Last week Coun Campbell said parish council members could attend the meeting as individuals.

He told members: "If you want to attend as individuals that is fine but I have indicated that the council as a group have one view, but there are individuals who have other views."

Coun Campbell said the meeting would take place in the Old School Room above the library on Main Street, at 7.30pm on Monday, October 31.

During the discussion about the Sustrans plan, Coun Campbell announced that extra car parking spaces in the village could not be created on land owned by Addingham Primary School. The scheme had been put forward as one way of accommodating the extra visitors the path could attract.

But Coun Campbell said that the owner of land which vehicles would have to cross in order to gain access to the area would not agree to it being used in that way.

And he said it was the same story with the farmer who bought the part of the railway line after it had been closed down in the 1960s.

Coun Campbell said: "I have had lengthy conversations with one of the major landowners in the vicinity who has indicated that it is regarded as a working farm and they want it to remain as a working farm. Negotiations about anything other than it being a working farm are dead in the water."

He said he did not know if the Sustrans officials had compulsory purchase powers but if they did they would have to flex them.

Parish councillor Alan Jerome said: "After 36 years the land would have been incorporated and absorbed into the farm."

Coun Jerome said he feared that the forthcoming meeting about the Sustrans path would not be balanced. He said; "They will be preaching to the converted and the people who come will be in favour of it."

After the meeting, Craven district councillor Michael Kelly (Con) said despite the car parking problems, the Sustrans plan could have positive effects for Addingham.

He said he would be attending the meeting on Monday.