A CYCLE trek to celebrate completion of North Wiltshire River Cycle Route sparked a row over a footpath when organisers upset Bowood Estate owner Lord Lansdowne.

Wiltshire County Council organised a 12-mile ride along the new cycleway on Tuesday to mark the official opening of the final section of the route from Lacock to Chippenham. The ride also coincided with National Cycling Week.

The journey included cutting through a section of the Bowood Estate, which is a footpath and not permitted to cyclists.

But landowner Lord Lansdowne was furious organisers assumed they could use the footpath without asking his permission.

He said because the land is a footpath and not a bridleway he would not allow cyclists to use it. Wiltshire County Council, which is responsible for paths, responded by writing to Lord Lansdowne insisting the track could be used as a bridleway because there was evidence that it had been used as one hundreds of years ago.

A spokesman for the council said: "We did notify the estate manager of our intentions to use the footpath in the cycle route for this day only. With hindsight and as a matter of courtesy we should have asked Lord Lansdowne's permission to use the footpath.

"We are not going to upgrade it without informing the landowner first. There is evidence of it being a higher use path which means it can be used as a bridleway and there is anecdotal evidence that an ancestor of Lord Lansdowne dedicated it as a bridleway."

But Lord Lansdowne said he disputes the historical evidence as being valid in 2004 and the route has not been used as a bridleway for at least 100 years. He said he will oppose any plans to change the footpath to a bridleway because much of his land was already open to the public and a cycleway would encourage more people onto the estate. Although he originally said the cyclists could not use the footpath on their route, at the last minute he allowed them to use it as a gesture of good will. Lord Lansdowne welcomed the cyclists onto his land and handed out refreshments before they travelled on to Lacock.

He told them: "It is lovely to see you. For charity events you will always have my blessing to use the footpath but we will be opposing plans to turn it into a bridleway."