Natural England accused of misleading public on coastal access

The CLA said the agency’s mapping audit - part of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill - ignored swathes of land that was already available to walkers.

CLA president Henry Aubrey-Fletcher said: “Natural England’s audit takes a very constrained view of public access and even ignores parts of existing coastal access routes and public rights of way.

“It also ignores the many other ways in which people are entitled to walk along the coast, such as under the right of access introduced by the CROW Act, or because the landowner has given permission.

“These areas are also accessible to walkers. It seems strange and misleading for Natural England not to take them into account.”

The CLA said that while, under Natural England’s definition, only 66 percent of the English coastline is open to the public, the figure rises to nearly 84 per cent if all types of public access are taken account.

“The main areas that are not accessible are those that can never be - ports, harbours, military bases or sites of crucial conservation,” Mr Aubrey-Fletcher said.

He cited the example of the Beaulieu estate where designations for its wildlife mean it is not open for public access as this would conflict with conservation objectives. Such general rights of access would also clash with the access granted to birdwatchers who are able to enjoy the wildlife undisturbed, the CLA said.  

He said the CLA had always maintained that the proposals to improve coastal access by means of a complete corridor were ‘misguided and unachievable’.

The Government should continue to use existing mechanisms such as the Highways Act 1980, rolling path agreements, or permissive access to improve coastal access, he added.

A Natural England spokeswoman stressed that its audit was ‘of all types of access’.

“We often talk about ‘satisfactory or legally secure access’ which describes the permanent, safe, unrestricted and legal situation – not the areas that are permissive, prone to erosion, tidal change or restrictions for example,” she said.

Announcing the results of the audit at the end of July Natural England acting chair Poul Christensen said it showed a ‘stop-start effect’.

“On average you cannot walk further than two miles without reaching an area of unsecure access or having to turn back,” he said.

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