Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, we come back nearer to home with the Marine and Coastal Access Bill. This Bill, as the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, said, is long overdue. We all know that our seas, with their exceptional wildlife, have been neglected and despoiled, suffering from gross overfishing and dredging and trawling along the seabed. That is apart from what now appear to be the adverse effects of climate change. What were, not long ago, substantial populations of cod, herring, mackerel, sole, plaice and whiting are all greatly depleted. Some have collapsed. Sand eels, an essential food species for many fish and such birds as puffins, kittiwakes and Arctic terns, are nowhere near as numerous as they once were. The species that feed on them are in trouble. Our seas and their wildlife urgently need protection, yet, year after year, while all sorts of measures have been put before us, we have not been asked to pay attention to the seas that surround us. It is surely rather shameful that our island country, while doing a good deal to promote conservation on the land, has done hardly anything comparable to conserve our seas. However, the Bill we have awaited so long at last has arrived. Its 300 pages and accompanying documents show that Defra and other departments have put a vast amount of work into it. They have produced a good Bill that deserves our support. It has had extensive pre-legislative scrutiny although, unhappily, some of the very sensible proposals made by parliamentary committees have been rejected. In any case, there is room for improvement, which we shall address at subsequent stages. Although it is not included in the Bill, we must bear in mind that under an EU directive we are now required to achieve good environmental status for our seas by 2020. That includes making sure that commercially exploited fish and shellfish populations are within safe biological limits, maintaining the biological diversity of marine habitats and limiting contamination of the marine environment to levels that do not cause pollution. Turning first to the nature conservation provisions in the Bill, I think that some of the key proposals are those in Part 5 for marine conservation zones or MCZs in the seas off England and Wales. However, I agree with those critics who say that the conservation objectives could be undermined by the provision that the designating authorities may have regard to economic or social consequences. I am sure that sites should be designated solely on scientific criteria, as is the case on land. That is in line with the Government’s promise in the 2002 document, Safeguarding our Seas, that there should be an, "““ecosystem-based approach to marine management””." The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, for which we should have the highest respect, in its 25th report, recommended that in order to restore health to UK fisheries and marine biodiversity, the Government should establish a linked network of marine reserves. It should cover at least 30 per cent of UK seas, go out 200 nautical miles and protect the whole ecosystem by connecting together reserves that are established as ““no-take”” areas. That would allow fish to reach their full size, which they cannot do at present, and to spawn safely. That is the right way to bring about the needed recovery, as has been argued by Friends of the Earth’s Marine Network. I welcome the plan to have an independent body, the Marine Management Organisation—MMO—to discharge marine functions and control planning and licensing, provided that it is properly resourced and staffed by competent, knowledgeable people and given powers to police provisions in the Bill. We shall get nowhere without such enforcement. I also welcome the proposal to set up inshore fisheries and conservation authorities and to reform migratory and freshwater fisheries, although it has taken, strangely, nearly a decade to meet the relevant recommendations in the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Review. It is clearly important that the management proposed should be co-ordinated with the authorities in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The inshore fisheries and conservation authorities should also be required to work closely with the Environment Agency. Speaking as a resident of Wales and as president of the Welsh Salmon and Trout Angling Association, I think it essential that the Welsh Assembly Government should be given the necessary powers and duties to deliver the same improvements that will enhance fisheries management in Wales as those to be passed in England, even though TECAs will not be created in Wales. It is odd that the Government are working in the Bill to secure the welfare of migratory fish while they are also considering the construction of the Severn barrage, which, as I pointed out when we debated that project some time ago, will probably destroy the runs of all migratory fish heading for the upper Severn, the Usk and the Wye. Part 9 on coastal access has been generally welcomed but is inevitably rather more controversial than the rest of the Bill. I sympathise with the Government’s objectives. I remember that when my wife and I served in Canada we used at weekends to drive out to the country near Ottawa and often found attractive lakes where we hoped to walk with our dogs. Usually, we found a lodge and fences barring our way. There are of course many private properties along out coast: farms, beaches, golf courses and much else besides. Although gardens and parks will be exempted, other properties may have a 33 feet-wide corridor together with an area curiously described as ““spreading room”” driven through them. The Government have rejected views expressed by the Joint Committee of both Houses and the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee that there should be a right of appeal and, where appropriate, compensation paid. It seems quite wrong to me for the Government to take such a ruthless, unsympathetic line in dealing with the private property of ordinary citizens. That ought to be looked at again. Apart from that, it will clearly be necessary to arrange that the route does not damage sensitive habitats and wildlife sites such as estuaries, marshes and cliffs, which are used as nesting sites by birds. On the whole, we are fortunate in having to deal with a really worthwhile Bill, but it needs some changes. I look forward to subsequent stages, and I hope that the Government will respond reasonably to suggestions that may be made to them. If so, the Bill may, as I hope, become a real environmental landmark.