A pensioner claims he has been insulted and abused for repairing his own path.

Derrick Kershaw, of Nelson Street, Queensbury, says he originally closed off the ginnel to Chapel Lane which adjoins his house in an effort to fix a drainage problem.

The path came with his home when he bought it two and a half years ago.

But since starting work around three months ago to try to identify the source of a foul smell, he claims to have been inundated with rude demands from people insisting they be allowed through.

Residents at the nearby Goodwin House sheltered housing complex claim the route has been used as a short cut for decades.

They are now lobbying Bradford Council to declare it a new public right of way.

But Mr Kershaw, who said the path had now reopened, added: "It is completely private, it says so on the deeds to my house and it's on my ground, and there's no way it's a public right of way.

"I dug up my path to try to find out where a foul smell was coming from, but that has got nothing to do with anybody else.

"I have let people go through before without saying anything but when they start saying it's a right of way and giving me stick it's too much."

The path was resurfaced by one of Mr Kershaw's neighbours and has been mainly used by pensioners or wheelchair users who have difficulty using nearby Nelson Street which is not made up.

Goodwin House resident Elfrieda Williams, 77, who has to push her 80-year-old husband, James, in a wheelchair, is one of nearly 50 people who have signed a petition calling for the ginnel to be reopened.

Mrs Williams says she can remember people using the ginnel as a through-route as far back as the 1930s, and argues that it must qualify as a right of way.

But Mr Kershaw said: "If they've been going through it for 70 or 80 years it doesn't make a difference because it's still a private road.

"I've had them call me a nerd and one called me an awkward so-and-so, and I shouldn't have to put up with that."

Bradford Council has no record of a right of way for the route but says it could be declared one if it is proved that it has been used as a thoroughfare on at least one day a year for the last 20 years.

A spokesman said: "The fact that it's private land is not the point - a public right of way establishes a right of way across private land."