AN organisation that represents farmers and landowners in Scarborough has condemned plans to remove safeguards in the new public right of access to the English coast.

The Country and Land Business Association (CLA) says it is shocked that Natural England, the official conservation and wildlife body, wants to remove safeguards that would have stopped the public walking across private gardens and parks.

The rural economy experts say it is “astonishing” that Natural England told the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee it had drawn up a map showing up to 5,000 gardens and parks could be hit.

A spokesman for the regional CLA covering Yorkshire, said: “It is extraordinary that Natural England thinks this is an acceptable way to act. We find it outrageous that the right of householders to enjoy the privacy of their own coastal gardens is at threat.”

At the meeting Natural England said rural property owners would just have to “trust” them on being fair in the implementation of the coastal access plans published recently in the draft Marine Bill.

Story by Trevor Hayes on the Scarborough Evening News website

More than 5,000 waterside homes in England could be forced to open up to ramblers under new laws being considered by MPs.

The move is part of a plan to create a 2,500-mile coastal path around England, one of the central planks of the draft Marine Bill currently undergoing parliamentary scrutiny.

Homeowners’ groups fear that the plans could devalue their homes by up to 20 per cent and they are determined to fight them.

Under the Countryside Rights of Way Act, which came into force in 2001 and opened up moorland, mountains and downs, the sanctity of private land is safeguarded. But Natural England, the Government’s landscape advisers, disclosed to MPs last week that it would seek to scrap the provision to ensure walkers would not be forced to divert inland from the coast.

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While the Government has earmarked £50 million for the path scheme over the next ten years, no money has been put aside to compensate landowners.

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Natural England said rural property owners would “just have to trust them” on being fair in how it went about drawing up the coastal path.

But Sir Henry added: “It is impossible to trust Natural England on this after it has repeatedly said the new right would not affect private gardens.”

Read the full story by Aislinn Simpson on the Telegraph website similar story on the Times website

According to the government’s countryside advisors, Natural England, for an island nation like Britain it should be a basic human right to have access to virtually every inch of coast. The idea is that anyone should be able to go to the coast, turn left or right and be able to walk on a continuous footpath as far as they wish.

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And so new legislation to create a footpath round the whole 2,500-mile coastline of England will be featured in the Queen’s Speech later this year. The Marine and Coastal Access Bill will extend the principle of open access over large areas of England’s uncultivated fells and moors which came into effect a few years ago under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act.

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But the biggest challenge provided by the Holderness Coast to the idea of a footpath around the whole of England is that this is one of the fastest-eroding shores in Europe. Any new footpath in Holderness would be a case of now you see it, now you don’t.

That will not mean that the public right of access is washed away, according to Natural England. The right will simply “roll back” from the clifftop to the best, and the safest, available route.

Read the full article by Roger Ratcliffe on the Yorkshire Post website