Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am speaking as the Opposition spokesman for Wales and for Northern Ireland and also, as the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, mentioned much earlier, as one of those ancient warriors who fought the battles of the CROW Act, with my noble friend Lady Byford, all those years ago. I welcome the Bill, but in its present state, as other noble Lords have said, it is not fit for purpose. I assume that that is why it is starting in your Lordships’ House. Where else to start a Bill of this importance and poor layout, which will give such opportunities if sorted out? There is no better place than your Lordships’ House. I do not think that that would have happened at the other end, and I am certain that your Lordships will sort it out and send a very much better Bill back to the other place. Briefly on Wales, the Bill confers significant powers on Welsh Ministers. For example, they will be responsible for the preparation of marine policy statements, acting jointly with all the other policy authorities or the Secretary of State, for the preparation of the marine plans for the Welsh inshore and offshore regions, for marine licensing, for the designation of marine conservation zones in the Welsh inshore region and for inshore fisheries in Wales. That is all well and good, but consistency and regularity of approach between the UK-wide authorities and the Welsh Ministers is of crucial importance in the context of the marine environment. The Bill, however, seems something of a mish-mash with, frankly, insufficient to help to ensure that consistency is achieved. This aspect will have to be significantly improved as it progresses through your Lordships’ House. My noble friend Lord Taylor has already referred to Part 9 and the provisions it contains for coastal access in England. With regard to Wales, Clause 300 seeks to confer new primary powers on the National Assembly for Wales to secure public access to coastal land. The memorandum prepared by the Welsh Assembly Government with regard to this provision points out that in Wales there is already a commitment to creating a new all-Wales coastal path by 2012. The memorandum also indicates that, given the fact that such a programme is already in place in Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government would wish to consider how provisions envisaged for England would need to be adapted to meet Welsh requirements and circumstances. I see the Gauls leading the Brits. We are also told in the memorandum that the Assembly Government foresee the need for future legislation in Wales to address the limitations inherent in the current devolved settlement and to improve flexibility to provide for a continuous route around the coast. I would like to hear more in due course about the principles that will direct the Assembly Government in the creation of a Wales coastal path, and in particular the environmental considerations that it will be taking into account. The memorandum indicates that it would not be the intention of the Welsh Assembly Government that any measure should affect the position with regard to access to land used for purposes within the responsibility of the UK Government without the agreement of the relevant Secretary of State. That is particularly important, given the significant number of military establishments around the Welsh coast, to say nothing of such sites of economic significance as, for example, the LNG terminal in Pembrokeshire. I can see nothing in the Bill, however, which formalises the requirement for the Secretary of State to be consulted. It is certainly the case that under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, the Secretary of State can issue a direction excluding or restricting public access in the interests of defence or national security. This power does not, however, extend to locations which may be of economic or other significance. These points need to be clarified and will no doubt be the subject of much further debate. To summarise, I am pleased by the emergence of the Bill, but it must be regarded as work in progress that will no doubt be subject to significant further clarification and amendment in Committee. So much for Wales. Northern Ireland virtually does not appear in the Bill, so far as I can see—and I searched quite hard. However, there are significant problems. Northern Ireland has a land border with the Irish Republic. Many noble Lords talked about the different NGBs and other groupings, such as local authorities, that will have to work with the MMO to make this work; but what about the international side? How wide is St George’s Channel? I should know, but I do not. I would say, about 80 miles. So much for our 200-mile zone. What do we do? The Republic of Ireland is a foreign country, as the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, has just pointed out, although we have many treaties with it. Scotland, too, is to some extent a foreign country in this regard, because it is doing its own thing. The devolved Government have the right to do what they want to with this Bill, which does not apply to Scotland. However, Northern Ireland is only 10 miles from the Mull of Kintyre. The power station in Belfast Lough is 20 miles from Wigtownshire. There are all sorts of problems to be sorted out about who is going to make decisions, where, and how. I move on to one or two other points. Marine conservation and reserves are very close to my heart, because of the fishing industry in Northern Ireland and in Ireland as a whole. We must stop managing our seas by relying only on the licensing of the extraction of individual resources. We have to start managing the whole ecosystem. The key tool in the new management system that the marine Bill must establish is the marine reserve—and I mean the real marine reserve. Fisheries conservation that does not include highly protected reserves will certainly fail. For fishing to be sustainable, fish must have a chance to reproduce. By contrast, our current fisheries policy, as embodied in the EU’s common fisheries policy, permits fishermen to fish spawning grounds, where fish collect, thus destroying their reproductive potential. Without creating marine reserves, we have no chance of restocking our seas. At the moment, the UK Government are proposing to create only marine protected areas—MPAs—based on the EU habitats directive. These MPAs are not true marine reserves, because they will still permit fishing within their boundaries, and will not be linked into a network to produce an ecosystem that allows the fast reproduction of fish that we urgently need. The Government argue that the UK cannot establish no-take marine reserves, where fishing is prohibited, beyond the territorial limit of 12 nautical miles, because we have surrendered sovereignty over fisheries to the EU, and such reserves would violate the common fisheries policy. That is rubbish. Legal opinion obtained by MARINET asserts that this is untrue. So let us get on with putting in place proper fish conservation. I will say a few words on access. I almost saw the ghost of the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, hovering over the Minister, after nights and days sitting opposite him—whole nights and three-quarter nights. The first note I have made is that, as other noble Lords have said, the coast is dangerous. It is beautiful and tempting, but it is nature at its rawest in our part of the world, particularly on my side of the United Kingdom, the south-west corner. Almost every day we hear of disastrous accidents that might have been avoided, often involving experienced people. On Saturday, two experienced members of the BASC—experienced wildfowlers—nearly lost their lives, as my noble friend Lord Cavendish of Furness mentioned, because of the strange tide in Morecambe Bay. It came up half an hour early, and much faster than expected. Those people knew their business; they were experts who knew the mud flats. If we are going to have access to a coastal path all round Britain, the Government must realise what the cost will be. The figure of £50 million over 10 years is peanuts, small change. No Government could start to put that together for £10 million a year over five years, or £5 million a year over 10 years, or whatever it is. I spoke today to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. It is not political, but is spreading its wings to try to look after our beaches and protect careless holidaymakers. It is a charity and cannot be everywhere, so the number of deaths can be expected to increase. I read its literature every month. It is always rescuing, not big ships from the open sea, but people playing off beaches, such as canoeists and kids who have paddled out too far with their fathers. Having more people on unmanaged beaches would be disastrous. Access to our beaches has got to be managed. Maps must be made and proper rescue and emergency points set up, agreed together by the coastguard, the MMO and the RNLI. A number of detailed measures are required that will cost money every day of the year. Let no one go into this beautiful game of opening up our coasts to the public thinking that nothing will happen. There will be more accidents, because coasts are dangerous. In Cornwall, two friends of my son’s, who knew the countryside well, went to a party. My son got left behind while the others ran on. A bit of cliff had given way and one of the boys went over and was killed. That was one evening at a children’s party; they were teenagers. It just happens, that is the way it is. The coast is a dangerous place and let us not pretend otherwise. Dogs, too, frequently run over cliffs; chasing rabbits or doing something similar. If they are not on a lead, they will go over a cliff. These are small points about access to the countryside. We have heard from my noble friend about the more serious matter of dealing with landowners, to make sure that they do not suffer. My last appeal relates to the lack of an appeals system in the Bill. I hope that, by the time we have finished, we will have a robust appeals system for all those concerned with access to the coast.