A LANDOWNER is threatening to take Kirklees Council to the European Court of Human Rights over plans to create a trail for walkers, cyclists and horser-riders.
Nancie Crowther, of Far Dene, Highburton, says the proposed Fenay Greenway is a "road to nowhere".
Mrs Crowther says her land would be "stolen" from her to create the trail, which she said would become a haven for drug addicts, glue-sniffers, fly-tippers and litterers.
Exhibitions about the four-mile Greenway opened this week. It would run on the course of the dismantled Kirkburton branch railway line, between School Lane in Kirkheaton and North Road in Kirkburton.
Mrs Crowther said she had owned about four acres of the land for the last 30 years, since the branch line closed.
Her two horses, which she rescued after they were abandoned, graze on the land.
"It is a magical, natural wildlife corridor, with roe deer, badgers, foxes, hares and butterflies. The environmental impact would be horrendous," said Mrs Crowther.
She added that as many as 1,000 trees - 200 of them on her land - would have to be felled if the plans went ahead.
Many have preservation orders on them, she says.
Mrs Crowther also has concerns about loss of privacy to her property and safety fears for cyclists and horse-riders leaving the Greenway for Penistone Road.
"I am not having Kirklees Council stealing my land from me, 30 years later, when it suits them. Landowners have rights and I will take them to the European Court of Human Rights, first," she added.
Concerns were raised last month that land for the Greenway would be compulsorarily purchased from people's gardens. But Kirklees has denied this.
A council spokesman said public consultation on the plans would run to the end of the month.
The consultation results would be presented to the council Cabinet, along with recommendations, in December, he added.
