Coastal Access Bill this autumn would introduce round England coast path.
Some cracking PR work from the outdoors lobby at the weekend with an
article in the Telegraph pointing out that should the
Marine and Coastal Access Bill
go through Parliament this autumn, some
1,000 miles of previously
inaccessible land will be opened up to walkers.
Not all of England's coast is as accessible as these Cornish cliffs -
DW -
OM
Gallery
If the planned coastal path around England goes ahead, not only will
areas in the Borders, Norfolk and around Liverpool for example, be
opened up for the first time, but walkers will also be able to walk
through golf course, estates and farms currently closed.
Apparently a survey by Natural England shows that currently more than a
third of the English coastline is currently 'inaccessible', with the
North West the worst region overall with more than half of the coast
there 'blocked off or in bad condition'.
If the bill is passed, some £50 million will be spent over
the next ten years to build paths and bridges, establish rights of way
and negotiating new byways.
The Ramblers, not surprisingly, along with the BMC and other outdoors
groups, are squarely behind the bill.
Tom Franklin, chief executive, the Ramblers said: “Today our beaches
will be full of children building sandcastles or families strolling
along beautiful vistas yet access to our coast is vulnerable and
fragmented. The public needs the government to hold firm and introduce
legislation that will make access to our coast the envy of Europe and
the world and boost small coastal businesses that are badly suffering
during the recession.”
The Telegraph article is well worth a read:
www.telegraph.co.uk
