ENGLISH Heritage has been given permission to delay the opening of a cycle and pedestrian path past Stonehenge despite an outcry from residents living nearby.

The organisation which manages Stonehenge was due to open the path on a grassed over section of the former A344 by October 2016.

The path was a condition of planning permission being granted for the new visitor centre built in 2013 which involved the decommissioning of the A344 between its junction with the A303 at Stonehenge Bottom and Byway 12.

In a retrospective application, English Heritage (EH) says the delay is needed to allow the grass to become fully established but local residents believe the charity wants to defer its opening to prevent non-paying visitors from getting close to the stones.

Speaking at Thursday’s Southern Area Planning Committee meeting, EH’s landscape manager Chris Bally told councillors the initial grass seeding had not germinated leading to a reseed in August 2015.

He said: “It is natural chalk grassland with a lot of wildflowers so the grass is not very thick, by this October it will be a lot thicker.”

Jennifer Davies from Stonehenge said EH “fully intended” to open the path “on or before” October 1.

Residents and local parish councillors urged councillors to get the path opened immediately.

Ian West, a parish councillor and resident in Winterbourne Stoke, said vehicles had driven over the path during the solstice and if it was good enough for them it was good enough for walkers and cyclists.

He said members of the public walking or cycling on the path had been “intimidated and harassed” by EH staff, adding: “By granting this permission today, it will send the wrong message to English Heritage.”

Voting to permit the delay until October, committee chairman Fred Westmoreland said he could see no justifiable reason for refusing permission.

However he said local people were “getting quite tired” of the way EH was behaving in the delivery of certain planning conditions agreed several years ago.

He said: “I hope English Heritage will take away, certainly from me, that I’ve had enough.”

Councillor Chris Devine raised concerns over the safety of the route saying: “This is about a path which runs down to a corner where we had a family of four killed a few years ago by a gravel lorry going straight over their car as they attempted to turn in there, it’s an extremely dangerous bend.

“I can see a fatality down there as soon as this path is actually opened.”

Eight councillors voted in favour of the delay with one against.