Kate’s sister and brother-in-law win planning inquiry over public footpath battle
The Princess of Wales’s sister and brother-in-law have won a planning dispute to prevent part of their driveway being recognised as a public footpath after increased concerns over security.
Pippa Middleton and James Matthews bought their property in west Berkshire in 2022 and have been fighting against a section of it being turned into a public footpath.
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Matthews installed an electric security gate on the drive shortly after moving in, which prompted walking group Berkshire Ramblers to apply for a “definitive map modification order” a few months later to recognise a public footpath on the property.
He urged a planning inquiry at Kintbury Coronation Hall earlier this year that there is an urgent need for higher levels of security due to his family's public profile.
Planning inspector Kenneth Taylor has not confirmed the order, which means that the route outside the couple's house will not be recognised as a public footpath.
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Matthews said: “In the period after the footpath application, unfortunately there has been a continued need to enhance security and the gates at Station Road have therefore been upgraded in the summer of 2025 and kept closed.”
He added that there was nothing in the conveyancing process which alerted him to any public use of the drive after he bought the property.
In a statement to the inquiry, West Berkshire District Council said the application was based on “the legal principle that a public footpath can be deemed to exist if it has been enjoyed by the public for an uninterrupted period of 20 years, without force, secrecy or permission, or if evidence infers that a public footpath has been dedicated by a landowner at some point in the past and that dedication has then been accepted by the public (i.e. by being used by the public)”.
Matthews said that when the gate was put in, no one from the parish council or village raised any issues, nor did they contact them about the gate being there.
He also said in the last three-and-a-half years he has seen “only a handful of people, on maybe two or three occasions, walking along the drive”.
Shortly after the footpath application, there has been an increased need for additional security and the gates have been upgraded in 2025 and kept closed.
According to Matthews, each time he informed by-passers that the drive was not a public footpath, they understood.
James Matthews is a British hedge fund manager and married Pippa Middleton in 2017.