Coastal Access
Regular readers of these notes may remember that I have written previously about delays in providing the new Coastal Path, but this time I will write about some further delays and also a little progress. Officially it was meant to be completed by 2020, which is this year, but clearly this is not going to happen.
In 2009 the Marine and Coastal Access Act was passed by Parliament which was the enabling legislation for improving coastal access. The initial section to be opened was at Weymouth Bay in 2012.
In the North West the first section to be officially opened was in Apr 2014 which is from Allonby to Whitehaven, this being 36km long, although Natural England have admitted that this was an easy section to do, because a public footpath already existed over a large part of this section. In reality it is possible to walk from Silloth to St Bees on the coast.
The only other section that is open in the NW is the section around Walney Island which opened on the 12th Feb 2020. The route for this section was confirmed by the Secretary of State in March 2017, with the approved route being 33km long. The first date that was mentioned for completion was for some time in 2018, without quoting a month, but it then slipped in stages to Feb 2020.
Work started in Feb 2016 on the section from Silverdale to Cleveleys, which will be about 82km long. It assumes that the Knott End to Fleetwood Ferry will continue to operate. The publication of the report about the proposed route was originally expected in 2017, but was achieved on the 8th Jan 2020, with the deadline for making comments being 4th March. Part of the reason for the delay in publication was the need to change the way the environmental assessments were made following a successful appeal by protestors against a planned wind farm in Ireland to the European Courts.
Originally when reports were published about the intended route for a section of the Coastal Way the route was written up as a long narrative. In 2019 Natural England changed their policy so that a section would be split into a small number of chapters, with each chapter effectively being a subsection. The Silverdale to Cleveleys section contains the following chapters –
- Silverdale to Bolton le Sands
- Bolton le Sands to Heysham
- Heysham to Lancaster
- Lancaster to Glasson Dock
- Glasson Dock to Fluke Hall
- Fluke Hall to Cleveleys
Members of the Ramblers worked with members of the Open Spaces Society to consider the proposals for the route and made a joint submission to Natural England. The only chapters that no comments were submitted were for chapters 4 and 6.
The first reports about a section to be written up as a number of chapters was from Grain (near Rochester) to Woolich on the 5th June 2019, with the overall section expected to be 78km long. On the 23rd Jan the Secretary of State gave approval to four of the six chapters, so the route can now be provided between Grain and Botany Marshes, plus from Erith to Woolwich. The part of the proposed route from Botany Marshes to Erith is now being considered by the Planning Inspectorate. It is likely that something similar will happen in a few months time about the report about the section from Silverdale to Cleveleys.
Planning of the section from Allonby to Gretna has been done by Natural England staff which is intended to be nearly 100km long, but a few objections to the proposed route were made. A public inquiry was held in Dec 17 to consider nine objections, but we are still awaiting the inspectors report. From when the inspectors report is issued it will be a minimum of 18 months to implement it on the ground.
A report about the section from Cleveleys to Liverpool was expected to be published in March, but because of Covid-19 Natural England stated on the 26th March that publication of new reports had been suspended. Hopefully it will not be a long delay.
The section from Whitehaven to Silecroft, which is going to be 55km long, which gained Secretary of State approval for the planned route in Sep 2015, which at the time was expected to open early 2017, with the works that are required being arranged by Cumbria CC. In reality good access already existed on the coast from St Bees to Whitehaven, so works were only needed from St Bees to Silecroft. The completion date has slipped in stages to late 2020. This means that an initial estimated 18 month implementation period has now become five years, assuming no further slippage. This slippage is not a good omen, for this is the first section of the Coastal Way in the NW that was intended to create new access. The official reason for the delay is problems with the contract with Cumbria CC and issues near BNFL Sellafield.
Any articles for the next Area News need to be with David Kelly by the end of Aug.