Natural England - Coastal access
Coastal access
England's coastline is spectacularly beautiful, rich in wildlife and hugely popular. Its sandy beaches and cliff top routes generate 72 million trips a year to the undeveloped coast, and 174 million to seaside towns.
Current position
The passing of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 brings the nation a vital step closer to having a secure right to walk around the whole of England's open coastline.
The Act gives the Secretary of State and Natural England a duty to secure a long distance walking trail around the open coast of England, together with appropriate ‘spreading room’ en route where people will be able to explore, rest or picnic. We envisage this taking some 10 years to achieve nationally.
We will prepare a series of reports to the Secretary of State, each relating to a different stretch of the English coast. In doing this we will closely involve the local access authority and will consult extensively with local interests. Wherever possible we will ‘walk the course’ with those whose land may be affected. We will also be able to put in place any necessary restrictions on public use if this proves necessary to avoid adverse impacts on other land uses.
At present there is a consistent stop-go pattern of access rights around many parts of the coast. Our national Coastal Access Audit Report 
, published in July 2009, revealed that about a third of the English coastline has no legally secure, satisfactory path - and that these sections regularly interrupt those where such a path already exists. The audit also highlighted the crucial importance of coastal change on the coast, estimating that 13% of existing coastal paths would be lost to erosion over the next 20 years as things stand. The new Act enables Natural England to propose that paths along an eroding coast ‘roll back’ automatically as coastal change occurs. This is an unprecedented legal step, and provides the means to resolve a long-standing problem for managers of coastal access.
The Coastal Access Scheme
The Act requires us to prepare a Scheme (methodology) setting out our approach to implementing the new rights around the coast, including how the trail will be aligned and how access rights will be managed. This document requires approval from the Secretary of State. In discharging the coastal access duty, we must act in accordance with it. We have recently undertaken a public consultation on our proposed Scheme which has now ended. We are currently considering comments we have received on the consultation version of our Coastal Access Scheme. Having done so, we will produce a final version of the Scheme and submit it to the Secretary of State for approval. We will publish the final Scheme and a Consultation Summary report following Secretary of State approval.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and further information about the Act
Our FAQs provide responses to common questions associated with our role in implementing these Coastal Access provisions. They supplement the information in Defra’s Coastal Access FAQs, which can be found at Defra's Accessing the English Coast page together with further information about the relevant legislation, including the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009.
Earlier advice to Government
Our original advice in February 2007 to Government on how best to improve access to coastal land, deliver wildlife & landscape benefits and increase people's enjoyment and understanding can be found in our Improving Coastal Access Report.
In December 2008 we published what was then our Draft Scheme, together with Supplementary Information , to help inform Parliamentary consideration of the Bill. The current Consultation Version of the Scheme replaces this draft version and provides considerably more detail on some aspects of our approach.
Marine issues
Information about the marine elements of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 can be found on our Marine Protected Areas page.
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