A council has removed signs telling pedestrians they cannot use a new Witney town centre path a month after they were erected -- because of confusion over access rights.

The signs were put up by Oxfordshire County Council at either end of the pathway, which leads from Mill Street, over a wooden bridge across the River Windrush, through a water meadow and on to West End.

Mill Street in Witney After the path's completion last year as part of the Early's blanket factory housing redevelopment, several people came forward and said they owned part of the mud track connecting the path to West End.

The county council put up the signs telling pedestrians and cyclists they had no right of way.

But several people have insisted that the path from West End had been used by the public for many years. This has prompted the council to take down the signs until a decision has been made.

Michael French, curator of the Witney and District Museum and a Mill Street resident, believes there has been a route between the two streets over the meadow for decades.

He said: "It was the main entrance to get to the river to go swimming in the summer and it was how factory workers got to Early's, and people have always walked over there with their dogs."

Old maps of Witney held by the museum are inconclusive. A map of 1921 appears to show the space occupied by the footpath as open land.

The county council has said it intends to continue negotiating with the landowners who dispute the right of way, who are known to include Les Basson, of Hailey, and said it may use its powers of compulsory purchase.

Assistant transport planner Alex Coley said: "It may be that this use has given rise to a public right of way, but at present no such right is registered on the legal record of public rights of way in Oxfordshire."

Anyone who thinks they can make a claim can call the Rights of Way office on 01865 810807.