PARENTS in Four Marks believe their children are being held to ransom by a callous landowner who blocked a well-used footpath providing a safe route to school.

The action, they claim, put the lives of children at risk, after they were unexpectedly forced to find their way home alone along busy highways.

The anger has arisen after a fence was erected, without prior notice, to prevent them using a path which links the new Barratt estate with the village recreation ground.

The path is also the emergency access for the 180 Barratt homes recently built on land off the A31 Winchester Road.

It has been in regular use for the past two years, providing a safe route from the estate, via the recreation ground, and quiet country lanes, to the village primary school, avoiding the main road.

For full story, see this week's Alton Herald.