The coast is clear!
After more than 50 years of campaigning, new legislation is finally giving the public access rights to almost the entire English coast. David Foster explores the intriguing background to this historic victory for walkers, while in the Winter 2009 issue of walk magazine you can read Defra minister Huw Irranca-Davies and BBC Coast presenter Mark Horton’s reactions to the news.
Barely a month before the General Election in May 2005, the Labour Party pledged to make better coastal access an early priority for its third term. Yet this wasn’t the first time that the party had turned its attention to Britain’s love affair with the coast – way back in 1949, Clement Attlee’s National Parks & Access to the Countryside Act was passed on a tide of public reaction to wartime austerity.
Attlee’s legislation laid the foundations of our rights-of-way network and National Trails, as well as our nature reserves and National Parks. “But despite these successes,” says Ramblers senior policy officer, Justin Cooke, “the complex arrangements for coast and countryside access in the Act simply didn’t work. Even the National Parks gave up on them.”
At the dawn of the new millennium, Parliament revisited the problem of access to open country. “When they got round to the Countryside & Rights of Way Act, the Government lifted the definition of open country straight out of the 1949 Act,” says Justin Cooke. “It turned out to be easier to open up inland areas than the coastline, but the CRoW Act left the door open to include coastal land later on.”
The Ramblers knocked on that door straight after the General Election, working closely with the Government’s advisers and fellow members of Wildlife & Countryside Link (an umbrella body of environmental organisations) on all aspects of the draft Marine & Coastal Access Bill. This massive new bill covered all aspects of marine development, biodiversity and environmental protection, as well as enhanced recreational access to the English coastline.
A new National Trail
“Early in 2007, just before the draft Bill was published, Natural England invited us to a confidential briefing with landowners, farmers and other countryside users,” says Justin. “After two years of consultation and research, they’d concluded that simply extending open access to coastal land wouldn’t be the best way forward – and that was a big surprise to most people. But, after a couple of days of discussion, we began to understand why.” Natural England argued that it would be impractical to show a thin strip of coastal access land on Ordnance Survey’s Explorer maps, as was done for more extensive inland areas of mountain, moor and downland. Instead, they suggested a tailor-made solution for the 21st century.
“Natural England proposed going right back to the 1949 Act to create a new National Trail around the English coast, together with additional CRoW Act access land or ‘spreading room’ between the trail and the sea,” says Justin Cooke. “We could see the benefits of that approach – opening up the countryside after the CRoW Act mainly benefited serious walkers, especially in areas such as the Yorkshire Dales, where access increased dramatically.
“But the coastline is different. It attracts millions of holidaymakers every year, most of them not regular walkers. A new coastal trail will benefit many more people. They’ll have the certainty of knowing where they can walk – and the Trail will get them involved in walking after their holiday.”
Groundbreaking legal powers
Natural England worked closely with Defra to design the new bill and ensure the legislation will be workable. “We expect the National Trail to be continuous around the open coast, and 95% of users will be on that trail,” says policy manager Paul Johnson. “It should be obvious on the ground, giving users the confidence and certainty to follow it, even without a map. If it isn’t, we’ll have failed! ”
The agency will have radical new powers to accommodate coastal erosion in areas such as North Yorkshire, where the Cleveland Way has been one victim of a very mobile coastline. In these places, the new National Trail will move inland on a safe, rolling alignment as the coastline recedes. “This is groundbreaking stuff – in every sense,” says Paul.
Learning lessons from its work on the CRoW Act, Natural England has completed an office-based audit of existing access, including data from all 53 coastal local authorities. “There’s already secure and satisfactory access to about two-thirds of England’s coastline,” says Paul, “although the public may also find more limited opportunities in other areas.”
On the Cumbrian coast, Andrew Best is one of Natural England’s access advisors working with the county council, farmers, wildlife trusts and the Ramblers. One of several pilot projects around the coast, his team is testing techniques to open up access along a ‘typical’ coastline, away from nature reserves or National Trust land.
“Cumbria County Council and the local access forum have been really enthusiastic,” says Andrew. “Everyone we’ve met has been so co-operative – even our critics have been really constructive.” His team has already collected a mass of data about existing footpaths, designated landscapes, planning and wildlife issues, and is now ‘walking the course’ and listening to the views of farmers and landowners.
The path ahead
Now the Marine & Coastal Access Act has come into force, similar projects will work towards a consensus on access right around the coast. The 1949 Act requires an official National Trail route map, and Ordnance Survey will probably show it on their Explorer maps, too. By default, the spreading room will include all the cliffs and beaches seaward of the Trail, so they’re unlikely to need mapping.
In places, the spreading room may run inland to a nearby wall or road. There will also be some sensible exclusions such as ports, power stations and military training areas, with diversions around them providing essential continuity. Natural England’s proposals include exclusions or restrictions, similar to those already used on some CRoW access land, to allow for the needs of farmers and wildlife.
Justin Cooke is delighted with the progress so far, but he’s still concerned about access to a handful of large parks and private estates such as Beaulieu, in the New Forest. In these cases, Natural England has the power to negotiate an agreed and permanent way through, and Government may take further measures when it reviews progress in five years’ time.
Local businesses might welcome that. The South West Coast Path already injects more than £300 million into the regional economy every year and research by the Ramblers suggests the English coastal path will generate life-changing sums to revitalise struggling coastal towns, retain vital services and boost local job markets.
It could happen very soon. The Government has already announced that the first stretch of new coastal path will open at Weymouth – home of the Olympic sailing events – in time for 2012. “As legislation goes, things have moved quickly,” says Justin. “With the CRoW Act experience behind us, we’ve avoided the previous scare stories about gates left open and a countryside covered in litter. None of that happened with access land – and it won’t happen on the coast, either.”
It has, he says, been a more gentle discussion, “debating with Natural England and Defra, talking to Ministers and MPs, keeping up the momentum. Natural England had taken two years to do their research. We didn’t want all that work to just sit on a shelf – we wanted to push it forward.
“It’s been a really positive campaign. Members and volunteers pitched in, studying draft legislation, highlighting improvements, writing to their MPs and joining in fun activities with kites or sticks of rock. And they’ve topped it all off by sending 20,000 postcards to the Secretary of State, thanking him for including coastal access in the Marine Bill.”
Click here for more detailed FAQs about the Marine & Coastal Access Act and the latest news on the coastal path’s progress.
- This entry was posted on: Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
- Filed under: Campaigns/Issues, Current Feature, Features, Walk Winter 2009
- Tags: coastal access, coastal walks, Marine and Coastal Access Bill
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