The unlawful fence in the Brecon Beacons. Photo: Sîon Brackenbury

Campaigners are celebrating victory after an unlawful ‘emergency’ fence across national park land was removed.

The fence crossed common land in the Brecon Beacons and was erected by a Government department during the foot and mouth disease crisis of 2001.

The Gap Road fence should have been removed in 2006, but it took a six-year campaign by the Open Spaces Society and Ramblers Cymru to get the fence removed.

The fence ran from near Pontsticill Reservoir in the south, crossing the hillside via Upper Neuadd Reservoir, passing just to the east of the summits of Pen y Fan and Cribyn, crossing the Gap Road and then cutting down through Cwm Cynwyn.

The two organisations repeatedly lobbied the Welsh Government and the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority to remove the fence because of its damaging effect on the landscape and the public’s right to walk there.

In 2009 the Brecon Beacons Commoners’ Association applied to the Welsh Government for consent to legitimise the fence, but the Welsh Government rejected this in 2011. Now the Cardiff administration has removed the fence.

But the campaigners said another unlawful fence at Manor Penderyn has not yet been removed.

The fence runs from just south of Beacons Reservoir, at the junction of the A470 and A4059, south west for four miles to the northern end of the Hepste valley. The Brecon Beacons National Park Authority has applied for consent from the Welsh Government, whose decision is awaited.

Open Spaces Society general secretary Kate Ashbrook said: “It is excellent that the unlawful Gap Road fence has at last been removed.

“We fought for years for this to happen because the fence divided the commons and intruded on the landscape and was a physical and psychological barrier to public access and enjoyment.

Chris Playford, the Ramblers’ footpath secretary for Brecknock said: “This is excellent news. At long last one of these unsightly fences has been removed.

“I hope this will give added impetus for the remaining fences to be taken down.”

Angela Charlton, director of Ramblers Cymru, added: “Ramblers Cymru are delighted that access has been restored to this area of common in the Brecon Beacons.

“We were part of the campaign to remove the fence and we are pleased that it will finally be a reality after six years.”