A home owner may have to take his house off the market after solicitors discovered a public footpath runs across his back garden.

Rex McCarter believes the old right of way might affect other properties in Green Close, Didcot.

According to a Land Registry plan, it runs through two of his neighbours' houses.

The forgotten path -- between Green Road and the southern end of Green Close near the line of the disused Didcot-Newbury railway line -- has created problems for Mr McCarter and a couple who have been trying since January to buy his £145,000 three-bedroomed semi-detached home.

The couple, whose solicitors uncovered the path during a legal search, have been refused a mortgage by their building society until the problem is resolved.

As a result, Mr McCarter who was planning to move to Leicestershire to be near his daughter, Debbie McCarter and four-year-old grandson Luke, has been unable to purchase a two-bedroomed cottage costing £92,000.

Mr McCarter, who is semi-retired and suffers from ill-health, is a director of a fibre and foam company, Fibreastic, which has moved out of Didcot.

He and his wife, who are separated, bought their home in Green Close in 1973.

He and his daughter, who is helping him sort out the problem, have found that the old public right of way running across the former East Hagbourne Field was not legally extinguished when the homes were built in the 1960s.

Mr McCarter said that unless the problem was resolved quickly, he might have to find another buyer for his home and could lose the home in Leicestershire.

He said: "I am 60 and don't want to wait indefinitely."

Didcot county councillor Neville Harris said: "The reasons that brought about this situation remain to be established.

"However, one thing is clear. Mr McCarter is currently faced with a ridiculous bureaucratic impediment which is preventing him from selling his house."

Mr Harris has called on the county director of cultural services, Richard Munro, to settle the issue urgently to help Mr McCarter and his neighbours.

Miss McCarter said: "So far, I have hit a brick wall, with county officials telling me it could take up to a year or even two years to formally extinguish the old right of way. It is farcical."

Anita Coghlan, the county senior rights of way officer, said: "If Mr McCarter completes an application to extinguish the path, we will try to be as helpful as possible. It is a lengthy legal process."