75-year-old Petter Olsen won an inheritance dispute with his brother Fred Olsen over 20 years ago. The dispute revolved around, among other things, the inheritance of a collection of Munch pictures. He has used some of the money he received to develop a visitor farm at Ramme by the Oslofjord, just north of Hvitsten in Vestby municipality. After several years of construction work, the cottage neighbors discovered that the walking path past the farm had not been reopened. Last year, Ramme gård started charging to enter the area, which was then closed to public traffic. Barriers and surveillance cameras had been set up, and the area was fenced off. Frame farm, in the middle of the picture. It is cabin neighbors north of Ramme who are reacting to the closure of the hiking trail they have used for years. Photo: Truls Alnes Antonsen / news – The barriers on Rammeveien are an illegal fence Rammeveien has been part of the connection between Hvitsten and Ramme for at least 150 years, says Bente Lier. She is general secretary of Norwegian Outdoor Activities and also a board member of Pyttskog vel. They have been fighting for several years to get the Rammeveien reopened for public traffic. In the municipality’s zoning plan, Rammeveien is regulated as a hiking trail. – It has now been established that the barriers on Rammeveien are an illegal fence. We see it in other parts of the country as well, that some landowners take measures in this way, says Lier. Bente Lier on the south side of Rammeveien, where the gate has been closed again. Photo: Tormod Strand / news As secretary general of Norwegian Outdoor Activities, she believes the dispute over the Rammeveien as a hiking route and part of the coastal path is important, and affects many people. – Closing the road violates the right of the public, and the right to free movement in the countryside, says Bente Lier. Lier is also concerned that the Rammeveien is a very beautiful walking route. – I have used this road as long as I have lived. It is a culturally historically important and beautiful road, says Lier. It is the Rammeveien which is now closed to public traffic. The municipality can give daily fines Now the cabin neighbors have received heavy legal help. For several years, Vestby municipality has been unsure whether Petter Olsen has been allowed to close Rammeveien. They have therefore ordered a legal review via the Norwegian Environment Agency. Ramme gård is idyllically located along the Oslofjord, in Vestby municipality. Photo: Truls Alnes Antonsen / news The note, which was drawn up by the law firm SANDS, clearly states that several gates that close Rammeveien are in breach of the Planning and Building Act. The law firm, which visited the area earlier this year, believes the gates form the basis for illegality follow-up. According to lawyer Odd Walther Moi, this means in practice that the municipality can demand that the gates be opened, and impose compulsory fines if this does not happen. The red line on the right in the picture is Rammeveien, which is closed to public traffic, and which the mayor and councilor in Vestby now want to have opened. The white line is the new hiking trail that Petter Olsen has laid east of Rammeveien. South of Petter Olsen’s property, you enter Rammeveien again. news reserves the right that the lines in the picture are not a completely accurate representation of where the two roads actually go. Photo: Truls Antonsen/Øyvind Bye Skille / news The note also states that the entire area along Rammeveien is open land. “This means that the general public has the right to travel over Rammeveien through Ramme farm according to the Open Air Act, so that the provision on illegal fences applies. Our assessment is that three out of four gates over Rammeveien are in breach of this provision, so that the municipality can require these to be removed or changed”. What is infield? Inland is a common term for cultivated land and cultivated pasture, including meadow and smaller pieces of uncultivated land within the same area. As a legal term, it also includes courtyard, house plot and the like. Innmark was apparently originally used for the land that lies within the fences (the homestead). Land outside inland is called outland. In the Outdoor Activities Act, inland and outland are defined with a view to the rights of the general public, the so-called right of way. Through its case law, the Supreme Court has provided a more detailed clarification of the concept of infield in the Outdoor Activities Act. Inland in built-up areas only includes the private zone around buildings, and not necessarily the entire plot. In the beach zone along the sea, there is a stricter infield definition, so that the residents there have to accept having the general public come closer to them. Source: Great Norwegian Lexicon. This is the note that the Sands law firm has drawn up for Vestby municipality. Photo: Tormod Strand / news Mayor wants to remove the barriers At the municipal building in Vestby, Labor Party mayor Tom Anders Ludvigsen is happy with the clear conclusion, in a case that has been pending for several years. Tom Anders Ludvigsen (Ap) says he is now in favor of opening Rammeveien, by removing barriers and fences. Photo: Truls Alnes Antonsen / news – Legal expertise, and also the councilor’s recommendation is that the barriers on Rammeveien should be removed. This is the clear advice in relation to the hiking trail and coastal path from Hvitsten towards Frogn municipality. – What will the municipality do now? – Yes, now we will deal with the municipal plan on 19 June. And I have no feeling for anything other than that the political majority in the municipality, including myself, want to remove the barriers. – What if Petter Olsen says no to that? – Petter Olsen cannot do that, if the municipal council approves it, says the mayor. Petter Olsen: Security and finances Petter Olsen welcomes news at the main entrance to Ramme gård, where Rammeveien runs, and where you now have to pay to enter the farm and Rammeveien. Petter Olsen inherited Ramme gård in 1966. Photo: Truls Alnes Antonsen / news Earlier in the day, Olsen was in the mayor’s office ahead of news’s interview agreement with the mayor, to hear what he wanted to say to news. Olsen seems ready to fight, and is not willing to open the Rammeveien without further ado. – This is, after all, an attempt to create a destination, and then we must have income to be able to have something to show off. – If you had kept the road open, as the road was before, why would it have destroyed the possibility of income for you? – Yes, who wants to see free animals? And then afterwards pay for it? It doesn’t connect. We must be able to charge a “yard fee” to be able to run and show animals. Rare animals, they are endangered breeds that we take care of here, and that arouses considerable interest, says Olsen. Along the closed Rammeveien there are enclosures with animals. Old Norwegian sheep, woolly pigs and telemark cattle are some of the animals you can see at Ramme farm. Petter Olsen has also used safety for animals, people and property as an argument for closing the road. – We have a security aspect here, because we have valuable art, says Olsen. He also mentions that the place, for example, can be used for peace negotiations and in that case security is important. There are cabin neighbors north of Ramme who want the hiking trail opened. Olsen says that the agricultural operation with large machines on the farm can be dangerous for pedestrians along Rammeveien who pass through the farm yard. He says that they also occasionally drive a double-decker London bus pulled by horses around the yard. – This will be impossible to implement with new fences and gates towards Rammeveien, which will then be public, says Olsen. One of the gates on Rammeveien – You can’t settle and close hiking trails Petter Olsen believes he has created a good alternative to Rammeveien, a hiking trail and coastal path that goes further east, through forest and along a field. This is where most people now, after the closure, go if they want to walk from Frogn to Hvitsten. Olsen says it is possible to get around here with a pram and wheelchair. news goes with Bente Lier in Pyttskog well along the alternative road that Petter Olsen has opened east of Rammeveien. Lier says this is not an option, because it is the principle of common law that this case is about. – But there isn’t much detour to go here instead of Rammeveien, is there? – No, and again, it is the principle here that is important. You can’t settle down and close regulated hiking trails, says Lier. Along the new road east of Rammeveien there is also a warehouse for Ramme farm, with machinery and building materials. – This is not very charming either. This is a landfill or storage area for Ramme gård. There are several of these in the forest as well, says Lier. This is what it looks like where Petter Olsen has placed a storage space, along the new walking path he has built. Photo: Tormod Strand / news Petter Olsen says that the warehouse in the forest is under completion, and that it will be nice there in a short time. Petter Olsen also says that he has opened a cultural trail west of Rammevien, closer to the sea, on Edvard Munch’s former property. Olsen does not agree with the lawyers and the municipality, who have now agreed that Rammeveien must be opened. Olsen emphasizes that the municipality’s administration has previously agreed that the road can be closed, because it is inland. He has no plans to comply with the municipality’s demand to open Rammeveien any time soon. – There will be talks between us, we’ll see what comes out of it. We will probably come up with a solution, says Petter Olsen. After news interviewed Petter Olsen, he sent news a memo in which a law firm commissioned by Olsen goes through the memo from the lawyers to the municipality. Olsen’s lawyer believes that Rammeveien is out of bounds and that the gates and fences are not illegal, and that Olsen has every right to close Rammeveien.
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Petter Olsen closed the hiking trail – now the mayor demands that the gates be removed – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
