Coastal access – A Welsh Perspective

In Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government is working towards a policy commitment to extend public access to the coast by 2008/09.

The Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) began the process with an information-gathering study in September 2005 and, after consultation with a range of stakeholders focused on three designated exploratory areas, produced a report that was handed to the Welsh Assembly Government at the end of March 2006. The report outlined a number of possible options on what form increased coastal access could take and how it could be implemented. These were:

• A – Negotiated voluntary access and path creation using section 25 of the Highways Act 1980.
• B – Utilising an amended version of section 3 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CROW) and the capacity to negotiate routes. This would use the same definition of open country as was used to map mountain, moor, heath and down and therefore would not include either semi-improved or improved grassland.
• C – Constructing a new definition of open country that could incorporate semi improved and improved grassland. This would allow the Welsh Assembly to come up with their own prescription for coastal access but does raise questions of feasibility that are still being addressed by the DEFRA lawyers.

An announcement on which option is to be used is expected early in the summer with more detailed information on delivery to be progressed through a stakeholder working group afterwards