A PRESTIGIOUS private school in Dorset wants a public footpath that runs through its site diverted following “serious concerns” over security.

Canford School applied to Poole council to change the route of the footpath, which starts from the road at Canford Magna and crosses through the school’s playing fields and then onto its golf course before leaving the school’s land.

The intended diversion would move the path away from the school so it runs alongside the boundary towards the south of the site. The path would continue through the gardens of staff residential properties belonging to Canford School and eventually take the public through Moortown Coppice. The new route would be 350m longer than the current one.

Members of Poole council’s planning committee will make a decision about the proposed diversion at a meeting on Thursday. They will consider the school’s case for the diversion, as well as the 40 objections from members of the public.

In its application to the council, Canford School, which charges £9,241 a term for day pupils, states its intentions to build a “small number of new facilities in the southern part of the site”. A security review carried out in 2016 revealed “despite there being relatively low pedestrian traffic along the footpath, it is still the source of much of the trespass on site”.

According to the school, in recent years there has been a “spate of vandalism and theft by individuals not associated with the school”.

Diverting the footpath would address the “school-wide security issues associated with unauthorised access”, the school said.

Mess from dog walkers using the footpath is also a “big issue”, the school said, despite there being dog waste bins along the route.

The school’s groundsmen “currently spend a significant amount of time clearing dog mess prior to sporting fixtures”.

The “significant risk to the public from golf balls being hit” has also been raised by the school, and the proposed diversion would “eliminate this risk entirely”.

However, objectors have complained that the diverted route would take people much closer to Magna Road and increase noise and pollution along the footpath.

Concerns about the new route threatening wildlife habitats, for example in Moortown Coppice, were raised, however these were not shared by the council’s ecologist.

A common objection has been that members of the public made to use a path diverted further away from the school ‘would be made to feel excluded compared to those members of the public who visit the school’s facilities’.

As a registered charity, it has been claimed that the school’s actions should be in the public interest.

The Ramblers and Open Spaces Society were both consulted about the proposals, with the latter organisation objecting to the diversion.