Frustrated residents say a popular countryside footpath has been turned into an impassable bog following dredging work.
Thick mud now fills a half-mile stretch between New Romney and St Mary in the Marsh after the clearing of the Wallingham Sewer which runs alongside it.
The footpath between New Romney and St Mary in the Marsh has been blocked by thick mud after the dredging work
The Environment Agency completed the work in November, but the foot-deep sludge from the drainage channel remains blocking the route.
John Harrison from New Romney used to walk the entire path, which is a public right of way, daily but has now given up.
The 63-year-old said: “As a lifelong walker, I’m sympathetic to the challenges to farming, but access to land as the public is a precious commodity, and to casually close it like this and make it impassable is just unacceptable.
“I accept that the ditches need to be cleared, but if they’d done it the other side, it wouldn’t have had any impact on walkers. I don’t understand why they had to use this side.
“The Environment Agency has a responsibility to resolve this issue afterwards.”
John Harrison, 63, from New Romney has given up his daily walk to St Mary in the Marsh
He says the boggy stretch is about 15 feet wide so to get around it people have to walk into crops, which is cultivated land and much softer than the footpath.
“So, anyone who’s not very able-bodied, there’s no way they could make it across,” Mr Harrison added.
“It’s now unavoidable for that half-mile stretch for walkers to not walk through crops and stay to the edge of the field.
“There’s a gentleman that walks his Scottish Terriers there, and he had to retrieve one from the mud, which got absolutely filthy. Like me, he hasn’t attempted to walk past it since.”
The engineer added that although it is a dirt footpath, the farmer normally maintains it well, and he often sees groups walking the route.
Reform councillor David Wimble, who represents New Romney on Folkestone & Hythe District Council
However, district councillor David Wimble (Reform) told KentOnline the dredging work is crucial to keep the land around the marsh free from flooding.
The New Romney representative said: “It’s an essential sewer that helps with the runoff floodwater from the farmland, and it has become increasingly blocked with overgrown reeds.
“From a farmer’s point of view, it needed to be dredged because otherwise they will get flooding their fields, so it’s the lesser of two evils, really.
“It doesn’t look very nice, but it is necessary.”
It is currently not known when the dredged mud will be cleared.
The Environment Agency has been contacted for comment.