The lane closure

For twenty years, people had used the lane beside the farm to reach the river. It was shorter than the public road and shaded in summer. When a locked gate appeared, the village group filled with messages. Some said the farmer had become greedy; others said the land had always been private. Mae read the messages on the bus and decided to speak at the meeting on Friday. She had walked the lane since childhood. On a sheet of paper she wrote three reasons it should stay open, leaving a wide space beneath each for evidence.

The meeting room was warm and crowded. Mae found a seat near the front, where she could see the farmer, Mr Trent, holding a plastic folder. He had brought nobody with him. When the chair invited comments, several people began at once. Someone mentioned a petition. Mae waited, smoothing the folded sheet on her knee. She had practised a sentence about the difference between owning a place and belonging to it. In her room it had sounded firm and fair. Here she was suddenly aware that Mr Trent could hear every word before she had said it.

When he was asked to explain the gate, Mr Trent opened the folder. Inside were photographs of broken fencing, a sheep with an injured leg and rubbish beside the water. He said he had asked for dogs to be kept on leads, but the signs had been removed twice. A man at the back said that most walkers behaved properly. Mr Trent agreed. The agreement unsettled Mae more than an argument would have done. It left the photographs in front of them, difficult to fit beneath any of the headings on her sheet.

Mae raised her hand. She still thought the lane should be accessible, she said, but she wanted to ask what would make that possible. A woman beside her whispered that they should not offer concessions. Mae kept looking at Mr Trent. He said he could consider opening at weekends if there was a way to protect the animals and clear the rubbish. He did not promise anything. The chair asked for volunteers to discuss it further. Mae wrote her name down. As she passed the list, she noticed that the man who had defended the walkers had signed too.

Outside, the woman accused her of weakening their case. Mae began to repeat the sentence about belonging, then stopped. She said that she wanted a path people could actually use, not just a good speech about one. The words came out more sharply than she intended. On the way home she unfolded her notes. Under the first heading she wrote dogs; under the second, fences; under the third, who will help? The gate would still be locked tomorrow. She did not feel that she had won, but she no longer knew how winning could mean exactly what she had imagined.

Focus on the final three paragraphs, from ‘When he was asked’ to the end.

A reader said: ‘Mae weakens her position by listening to the farmer instead of defending the walkers.’

To what extent do you agree and/or disagree? Evaluate Mae’s response and the way the writer presents the disagreement, using evidence and analysis of the writer’s methods.