Councillors will be asked tomorrow to rubber stamp the closure of a National Trail to allow champagne-sipping festival goers to enjoy their culture in peace.

The Thames Path runs through the site of the Henley Festival, and friction between the moneyed folk in bow ties and the Gore-tex clad walkers has been building in the past few years.

Now, the Open Spaces Society has said it is furious that the path closure, over a number of days, will be allowed for years to come. The Ramblers and Remenham Parish Council have also expressed their opposition to the move, which would see the matter taken out of elected councillors’ hands and allowed without scrutiny by the authority.

Wokingham Borough Council will consider the matter at its executive meeting tomorrow, 29 January.

Kate Ashbrook, the OSS general secretary, said: “This would appear to be a dereliction of duty. How can the councillors bind their successors for eternity?  The fact is that circumstances change, and the council has a duty to judge the application for the path closure against the legal tests.

“Every year the Festival has applied to Wokingham Borough Council to close the internationally-important Thames Path for a number of days before, during and after the Festival. 

“Because the closure is for more than three days it has to be confirmed by the Secretary of State for Transport.

“The council knows this closure is extremely controversial, but now it is trying to sweep it under the carpet, by recommending that councillors automatically approve it for ever more, with no opportunity for intervention by the public.

“Yet we have argued repeatedly that the Festival should be required to demonstrate why it cannot rearrange its activities, including the floating stage, to enable the path to remain open for most of the time except during the actual performances.

‘The council must go through a legal process in deciding whether to recommend the closure to the Secretary of State.  It cannot just give carte blanche to the closure for ever more, without testing the arguments each year and seeing whether the legal criteria are met.

“We call on the council to reject the closure this year but, if it does approve it, to do so for one year only,” she said.

Remenham Parish Council also points out that, during the closure, rowing clubs will not be able to train on the stretch of water where the festival is being set up and held, because the towpath will be out-of-bounds.

Henley Town Council also expressed its concern at the closures of the footpath saying future applications should be considered on their own merits.

The closures involve almost 500m of the Thames Path. Sections would be blocked to walkers between 6 July and 14 July.

The borough council, as highway authority, says it has a statutory duty to assert and protect the rights of the public to use any highway under its jurisdiction. It says it must bear this in mind when considering any closure application.