NFU respond to Natural England’s Public Consultation on the Coastal Access Scheme 
Natural England’s public consultation on their proposed Coastal Access Scheme closed on 5th February. The scheme sets out Natural England’s proposed methodology for implementing access to the English coast.
Background
The Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 was first introduced as a Bill into Parliament in December 2008 and includes provision for improving access to the English coast. It does this through introducing two new sections into existing pieces of public access legislation, namely;
• The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 (the 1949 Act)
• The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CROW Act)
The Act became law on 11th November and attained Royal Assent on 12th November 2009
The consultation was concerned with Natural England’s Coastal Access Scheme and set out the approach taken by Natural England when discharging its coastal access duty. The 12-week consultation period closed on 5th February and after this period the amended final version of the Scheme will be submitted to the Secretary of State. The final version of the Scheme is likely to be approved in spring 2010 and Natural England will have to act in accordance with it. There is a duty to a review the Scheme within 3 years, however, Natural England will continue to develop and ground-truth the Scheme and in particular the implementation process and operational procedures for “walking the course” with land managers.
Key points raised in our response to Natural England
The NFU believes that the blanket provision of access to the English coast where there is no clear public need, considerable existing access and limited funds available (as set out in the NFU’s original EFRA Committee response May 2008) is neither appropriate nor cost effective. Instead the NFU believe that the Governments efforts would be better focussed on the provision of high quality and well-maintained access where it is actually needed.
The NFU is also concerned with the way the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 will enable a number of proposed changes to be made to the existing provisions in the CROW Act as they will apply to coastal land. These proposed changes (as set out in Defra’s recent draft Statutory Instrument published on 26th January 2010) include some unacceptable key changes to current privacy and land management safeguards, check and balances available to our members. It is for this reason that the NFU are extremely disappointed by the proposed removal of existing discretionary directions currently available under the Crow Act to our members on mountain, moor, heath and down. The removal of these discretionary directions for our members at the coast is a fundamental undermining of their rights and is a step too far for the sake of providing certainty that the coastal route will open at all times.
We continue to have the firm belief that there will be considerable concerns and challenges regarding the physical implementation of coastal access on the ground, particularly regarding issues of privacy and conflicts with current land management practices. Ultimately, this ambitious project will only work with the full cooperation of the landowners and occupiers. This means that it is imperative that Natural England must engage in early and fully informed negotiations which take into full consideration the land management and privacy needs of those directly affected by this new trail and its associated spreading room. This draft Scheme prepared by Natural England provides a number of different alignment solutions which we hope will offer much needed flexibility to our members to accommodate their land management needs. However, this does not escape the important fact that the provision of this access is being imposed on our members without compensation and in their aim to strike a fair balance, Natural England must respect the needs of our members for exclusions and restrictions to meet their individual needs.
In our detailed response to each of the eleven chapters below we make a number of suggestions where the Scheme could be improved. However, we make a number of key recurring points throughout this consultation including:
• the need to stress the requirements and responsibilities of dogs owners, particularly the need for dogs to be on a lead at all times around livestock and for owners to clear up after their dog along the whole of the path and on any associated spreading room,
• the need for more clarity regarding the provision and funding of adequate clear signage, particularly with respect to the spreading room
• the need for Natural England to meet reasonable requests made by landowners for full maps of spreading room over their land.
• the need for Natural England to provide clear definitions of land types such as rough grazing and unimproved grassland.
• the need for more clarity regarding the provision, maintenance and funding of appropriate infrastructure. There should be no new costs imposed on our members and there should be 100% capital funds available to facilitate any necessary works to aid access provision such as the relocating of feeding toughs etc.
• the need for the width of the coastal path to be minimised across agricultural land (both cropped and grazed) to a maximum of 2m
• the need for greater clarity on access provision, maintenance and liability issues regarding privately maintained sea defences
• the need for swift, responsive and flexible implementation of restrictions and exclusions for land management purposes to fully meet the needs of landowners/managers. Access management solutions should not add any new burden on our members.
The full NFU response can be downloaded in the document on the right
No comments have been made.