diff --git a/lib/exe/css.php b/lib/exe/css.php
index f7235fd4edd51a2d85ccf6b01e9448d2a11f36c4..9645b96bcc000fa7703df21b22154edf4d76ee18 100644
--- a/lib/exe/css.php
+++ b/lib/exe/css.php
@@ -421,7 +421,7 @@ class DokuCssFile {
 
     protected $filepath;             // file system path to the CSS/Less file
     protected $location;             // base url location of the CSS/Less file
-    private   $relative_path = null;
+    protected $relative_path = null;
 
     public function __construct($file) {
         $this->filepath = $file;
@@ -454,7 +454,7 @@ class DokuCssFile {
      *
      * @return string   relative file system path
      */
-    private function getRelativePath(){
+    protected function getRelativePath(){
 
         if (is_null($this->relative_path)) {
             $basedir = array(DOKU_INC);