Natural England remains confident of creating an all-access coastal corridor, despite revealing that almost 1,500 miles of coastline was currently inaccessible.
An extensive audit by the Government’s environment adviser, which has been tasked with creating the corridor under the Marine and Coastal Access Bill, found there was no satisfactory or legally-secure access to 34% of the English coast. In the Northwest this figure rose to 56%, whereas in the Southwest, 76% of the coast was accessible to the public.
The audit estimated that 13% of the existing coastal rights of way could be lost to erosion in the next 20 years. ‘Roll-back’ provisions in the forthcoming Bill allow for the new route to be made erosion-proof, with the path rolling inland when landslips occur.
Dr Helen Phillips, chief executive of Natural England, said: ‘The news that the public lack full access to almost 1,500 km of coastline is a sobering reminder of how much is at stake in the Marine and Coastal Access Bill.’
But Paul Johnson, Natural England’s policy manager for coastal assess, said the 1,000 mile figure was ‘remarkable similar’ to initial estimates in 2007.
The Country Lane and Business Association (CLA) said there were good reasons why public access was not always possible, such as ‘the presence of military bases or ports, or overriding nature conservation concerns’.
Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, CLA president, added: ‘It would have been better if the Government had done more to improve the quality of existing access, such as with the provision of car parks and toilets, rather than try to secure access to the entire English coastline.’
But Johnson said the project was about adopting existing rights of way as well as creating new ones. ‘Where existing access is poor, we’ll improve it,’ he told Surveyor. He said Natural England would make significant contributions to maintaining the path, but expected local authorities to do the same, especially given the economic benefits.
One option was for Natural England to meet a proportion of maintenance costs in each area. The £50M earmarked for the scheme ‘is about right’, he added.
The Bill is expected to reach Royal Assent by November, with implementation set to begin in the second half of 2010.
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