Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

Noble Lords will appreciate that I hesitate to engage in a debate in which any noble Lord can think of an establishment that is next to the coast and challenge me on how the coastal path would cope with the requirements of that economic or social enterprise. I was shying away from dealing with caravan parks, because, as I understand it, we still are involved in considerable consultation on how to deal with such issues. With regard to the caravan park, we would probably not exclude the path, but would ensure that there was no additional land access at the margin beyond the path, so that walkers could go through, I hope with the minimum of fuss, but we would not expect anything except the coastal path to go through the park. We accept that we have more consultation to engage in on that issue, as on several others that noble Lords have identified. Coastal areas are pretty complex. I accept entirely that the issue of ports is an important part of the debate. I have stretched myself as far as golf courses, against my better judgment, and now I am on to caravan parks, and the issue of parks and gardens raised by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves. It is not reasonable for the Government to be asked to express much more in detail at this stage.