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The South West Coast Path Association welcomes the announcement by Natural England to improve public access on foot along the South West Coast Path between Penzance and St Mawes.

The plans to improve coastal access arise from the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, which places a duty on Natural England to make proposals to the Secretary of State for a long-distance walking route around the entire coast of England and for an adjoining margin of land where the public will also have a right of access on foot.  This might include foreshore, grazing land or cliffs but will not affect buildings, their curtilage or gardens.

Natural England will be investigating options for the stretches of coast between Penzance and St Mawes over the coming months.  This part of the coast already has the South West Coast Path along it for the entire length.  The majority of the South West Coast Path meets the criteria to be incorporated into part of the ‘England Coast Path’, and where this happens, the project will be about confirming the existing route, making it easier to deal with any future loss of the path to landslip or erosion, and confirming public access rights over beaches and cliffs etc., which although traditionally people use, they currently often have no legal right to.

However the Association has identified a number of locations, for instance between Porthoustock and Porthallow, where the current route runs quite far inland, and in these locations we will be asking Natural England to look at options to create a path closer to the sea.

Natural England has plans to contact all landowners along this section of coast to discuss potential options for the trail and the adjoining margin, so that they have full opportunity to input into the process.  It is important to note that there will be no new public access along the coast until the proposals have been approved by the Secretary of State.  We expect the whole process for the stretch to be completed during 2019.

More details of the scheme and progress at implementing it here, and elsewhere along the coast can be found at www.gov.uk/government/collections/england-coast-path-improving-public-access-to-the-coast.