Getting a track designated an official footpath has been anything but a walk in the park for Green campaigner Chris Goodall.

Mr Goodall, 50, of Navigation Way, North Oxford, applied to create a public footpath on to Port Meadow in January 2002 under new laws allowing individuals to claim rights of access.

His proposed footpath goes from Aristotle Lane, Walton Manor, around the Trap Grounds allotments and on to Port Meadow.

But after lobbying Oxfordshire County Council, which is responsible for designating footpaths, he claimed research on the application will not even begin until 2008.

Mr Goodall said: "I'm very disappointed. County councils are expected to get these applications sorted out within a year.

"When I hadn't heard from the council for four years, I wrote to the Government department that deals with footpaths.

"They asked the county for an explanation and all the council could say was they had other priorities at the moment.

"I gave the county large amounts of evidence the footpath had been in public use for most of the 20th century - I even provided a photograph of the little railway station that existed in the 1920s on this route.

"Many local residents confirmed they had been able to use the path since childhood."

Councils have a target of 12 months to determine applications for new footpaths, prompting Mr Goodall to suspect his was tangled up in bureaucracy in County Hall.

Mr Goodall's application is 37th in a queue of right-of-way applications.

However, neighbouring Buckinghamshire County Council deals with applications within a maximum of two years and currently has 15 in the queue.

A county council spokesman said: "County councils all over the country have long waiting lists to deal with requests for new public footpaths.

"The legal process that has to be gone through to create a new public footpath is immensely complicated and governed by legislation.

"Oxfordshire County Council, like all other county councils, has to prioritise.

"Mr Goodall's frustration is understandable.

"The council is only able to allocate limited resources to this area of work, but is dealing with requests as quickly as possible."

Green city and county councillor Craig Simmons added: "The county council must improve its lamentable record in assessing footpath applications - people have a right under the law to expect the county to make a decision within a year as to whether these routes qualify as public footpaths."