Questions remain over coastal access, says MP (From This is The West Country)

Questions remain over coastal access, says MP

3:00pm Sunday 22nd November 2009

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WEST Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger says questions still need answering following the announcement the entire English coastline will be permanently opened up to the public for the first time.

The Marine and Coastal Access Act, which gained Royal Assent on November 12, will create a continuous English coastal path that, when completed, will join with the Welsh Coastal Path – set to be completed by 2012 – and the existing rights of access in Scotland.

As reported in the County Gazette in July, West Somerset currently has some of the most inaccessible coastline in the South-West.

Natural England revealed more than half of the coastline running between Watchet and Porlock – about 50km – has no access or is accessible only on permissive paths.

Currently nearly 50% of the English coast has no public right of way.

Mr Liddell-Grainger told the County Gazette that although he felt the new legislation was “workable”, he saw problems the Government had failed to address.

“The first problem is compensation. What happens if someone falls and breaks their leg, gets attacked by a cow or falls off a cliff? Who is going to be responsible for that?

“Secondly, who is going to maintain it? Now it’s on a statutory footing, who will be overseeing the coastline?

“I do think it’s a good piece of legislation and it has lots going for it but these questions need answering.”

Britain’s walking charity, the Ramblers, has been campaigning to open up the coast for 70 years.

Tom Franklin, chief executive of the Ramblers, said: “Years of solid campaigning by the Ramblers has paid off. This historic moment marks a victory for everyone who walks in this island nation.”

The new path could take up to ten years to complete.

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