All-England coastal path unnecessary, says CLA

The government should repeal a law to provide an all-England coastal path, as the plans are excessively costly and unnecessary, according to the Country Land and Business Association (CLA).

The Marine and Coastal Access Act, passed in the dying days of the Labour Government, requires Natural England to create a coastal path around the whole country, at an estimated cost of at least £50m. Plans are already under way to boost access beside Weymouth Bay in time for the 2012 Olympics, followed by five new 20-mile stretches around the south-west coast.

But John Mortimer, south west director of the CLA, said claims for the proposals were a total waste of money because so much of the coast was already accessible.

“At a time when the government is trying to cut public expenditure in other, far more critical areas, it is surely irrational to spend millions of pounds replicating access that already exists.”

More than four-fifths of the coast was already accessible to the public, with only half the remainder able to accessed due to the location of ports, harbours, military bases or sites of crucial conservation interest.

“If the government wants to spend money on the coast, then it would be better spent on improving the facilities already on the established coastal paths such as maintenance, signs, toilets and car parks.”