A vote for walking

More than one in five election candidates commit to delivering coastal access as fast as possible, and have signed up to Ramblers’ Walking Manifesto. Candidates from all parties have committed to delivering a continuous coastal route around England, which gives the public the legal right to access currently out-of-bounds areas of the coastline. Implementation of the scheme relies on the political will of MPs and local politicians, to create a coastal route ‘on the ground’.

The Walking Manifesto (click here to download the PDF) encourages candidates to put their support for coastal access, and walking, on record by signing up to the document. The coastal access scheme will open up thousands of miles of inaccessible and out-of-bounds coastline permanently to the public for the first time by creating a continuous 4m (average) path around the shore. It contains provisions for ‘spreading room’, which will minimise conflict with landowners.

The manifesto states “We want to see delivery of the coastal route, which became law last November, as fast as possible” – in line with Natural England’s ten year timescale. Candidates signing up to the Walking Manifesto have been evenly spread across the main political parties. Justin Cooke, Ramblers Coastal Access Campaigner, comments: “That so many candidates have signed up to quickly deliver coastal access demonstrates the universal support that walking and access enjoys. We particularly welcome the cross-party support for access to our coastline.”

For more information on candidates who’ve signed up to coastal access delivery, and to walking, visit the Breaking Down the Barriers campaign at www.ramblers.org.uk and watch Ramblers CEO Tom Franklin’s video blog about the manifesto below.