The Government is today launching a consultation process on plans
to open up the entire English coastline to walkers with four
possible options available.
Currently around 30 per-cent of the coast isn't accessible, with a
third of that being owned by the military. Under proposed plans a
'coastal corridor' would be created that would allow the public to
walk all the way - or as close as possible to it - round the
coast.
It's a logical extension of the Right to Roam, with access to
Scotland's coast already enshrined in law north of the border, but
predictably reaction has been mixed.
What They Say... Ramblers
The Ramblers'
Association welcomes the proposals and is urging Gordon Brown
to make coastal access his 'first gift to the nation'.
Kate Ashbrook, chairman of the RA, said: "We are an island nation
yet access to the coast is poor in many places. There is no right to
walk on the foreshore between mean and high tide, so even a child
building a sandcastle may technically be trespassing."
She added: "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to change
dramatically the type of access we have to the coast. It is currently
impossible to walk from one end of the coast to the other. The public
finally have an opportunity to change that."
What They Say... Climbers and Walkers
The British
Mountaineering Council supports an open access approach and
will be responding to the consultation and organising a variety of
public events to highlight the importance of coastal areas.
It says it supports 'a permanent right of access to a 'coastal
corridor', which should extend from the mean low water mark to a
point inland, and include areas such as beaches, foreshore and
cliffs'. That's option 4 on the consultation document by the way, see below.
What They Say... Government
The Government's David Milliband is quoted as saying that
the coast is everybody's 'birthright':
"I want families to have safe and secure access to walk, climb,
rock scramble, paddle and play all along our coastline."
What They Say... Landowners
The Country
Land and Business Association seems mostly concerned with
compensation for land owners.
"We want more people to enjoy our coast but we fear that this
consultation will end up being about taking rights without
compensation and nothing more," said David Fursdon, President of
the Country Land and Business Association (CLA).
The CLA argues that 70 per-cent of the coast is already accessible
to the public and that the proposed measures - in particular the lack
of compensation - are a sledgehammer to crack a nut and could create
a precedent of land seizure in the name of the public good.
They favour local access solutions to local access problems.
The Consultation Process
There are full details of the Consultation Process at the
defra
web site complete with downloadable documents and a response
template which you can fill in and return.
The process ends on Tuesday, 11 September.
