Memorandum submitted by Mrs Pippa Woods
(DMB 69)
INQUIRY INTO COASTAL ACCESS PROVISION
I realise this is more than a little late as
I have been very busy administering the Family Farmers' Association.
For this I apologise and I also realise that it may not be admissible.
I write as a farmer/owner of land adjoining
the coast and also as, when younger, a coastal walker. I am not
so much concerned with the political implications of coastal access
for all, as with the practical difficulty, and enormous potential
cost. I have not read the Draft Marine Bill, so can only comment
in general terms.
It is a lovely idea that all should be free
to walk the coast of England, but I sincerely hope that the government
will not set about making it physically possible along the whole
coast, as there are many higher priorities for the large sums
of money which would be required—schools, hospitals, social
care, etc.
The coast in this area is familiar to me and
I know well the difficulties that have been encountered in opening
up the South West Coastal path. For instance there is an estuary
mouth which needs either a ferry or a long detour to the first
bridge. It has evidently not proved possible to find a ferry man
willing to operate in winter or for more than a limited number
of hours per weekday in the summer. To facilitate the detour it
has been necessary to build a wooden bridge over the stream. I
do not know the cost of it, but it must have been many thousand
pounds, due to lack of road access. This is just one example which
happens to be close to home, but there must be hundreds of rivers
and estuaries along the whole coast.
Then there is the problem of fencing. How many
thousand miles of fencing will be needed to keep the walkers and
the farm stock separate? Where woods go down to the coast, will
a strip four metres be felled? Who will keep the ground surface
of the four metre strip clear? In these parts land that is not
tended rapidly becomes rank with brambles/nettles/gorse/bracken/coarse
grass/blackthorn etc. Some authorities and the National Trust
have tried to solve this problem by pasturing ponies on open cliff
land, but such animals cannot be confined to a four metre strip.
Who will survey all the cliff land and decide
how close to the edge of the cliff the four metre strip should
begin? Will warning signs be placed where there is difficulty
of passage, and alternative routes provided? Will the Health and
Safety Executive require the provision of means of communication
in the event of emergency? (Either the route will be little used,
in which case there is no point in it, or, if it proves popular,
there is an infinite capacity for accidents.)
As I said I have not read the Bill so have no
knowledge of its true intentions. My comments may, therefore,
be irrelevant. But I do have some knowledge of coasts and worry
that a situation may arise where people fondly imagine they are
able to walk unlimited lengths of coast, only to be sadly disillusioned.
Alternatively, that vast amounts of money may be wasted on trying
to achieve the impossible. I feel it would be more sensible to
improve accessibility to certain chosen parts of the coast which
naturally lend themselves to enjoyable walking.
I trust that the committee is well aware of
all that I have said, but I say it just in case all members are
not.
Mrs Pippa Woods
May 2008
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