Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, we come to an important part of today’s discussions. We had a detailed debate in Committee about how we would ensure that the interest of landowners was taken into account in the coastal access proposals. I have read the conclusions of the various committees of your Lordships' House and the other place. I am grateful particularly to the noble Lord, Lord Goodlad, and his committee for the strength of their comments. I said in Committee that I was looking at proposals for an objections mechanism which would involve an independent person looking at objections to Natural England’s proposals. I have therefore tabled Amendments 124L, 124M, 124N, 124P, 124Q, 124R and 124U which, taken together, replace the previous mechanism for considering Natural England’s coastal access reports with a new mechanism that includes provision for an objections procedure. Amendment 124S deletes the provision enabling an order under new Section 3A to provide that no appeal may be made under Section 30 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 against decisions relating to land which is coastal margin. Amendment 124U inserts a new schedule, Schedule 1A, into the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. It sets out the process for considering Natural England’s coastal access reports. I should like to run through that procedure in some detail. Paragraph 2 of that schedule says that Natural England must advertise a coastal access report and must take reasonable steps to give notice of the report to those with a relevant interest in affected land and to certain bodies, and to persons set out in regulations. Paragraph 3 says that those with a relevant interest in affected land may make objections that Natural England’s proposals fail to strike a fair balance on certain grounds. They must specify the reasons why they are of the opinion that a fair balance has not been struck. The person making the objection may propose modifications of the proposal. To be relevant, any modification proposed either at this stage or at a later stage by the appointed person must meet certain criteria. These are that they must be practicable, take account of the considerations mentioned in Clause 287(2)—considerations about safety and convenience of the route, the desirability of the route adhering to the coastal periphery, keeping interruptions to a minimum—and, where appropriate, Clause 291(4), dealing with estuaries. They must also be in accordance with the scheme which is drawn up by Natural England, approved by the Secretary of State, and laid before both Houses of Parliament. These conditions are set out in paragraph 3(6). Paragraphs 4 and 5 require Natural England to forward any objection to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State must refer the objection to the appointed person. I make it clear that we envisage that this will be the Planning Inspectorate. The appointed person must initially decide if it is admissible—that is, meets the conditions for making an objection above and is made in accordance with any regulations as to the form and manner of objections and period within which they are to be made. I know that the status and qualifications of the appointed person will be of great significance. I believe that in the inspectorate we will have the independent element in the chain of decision-making about coastal access reports which will give confidence in the objection procedure for those who may bring forward such an objection. Paragraph 6 says that if the independent person decides that the objection is admissible, the Secretary of State must collect together information relating to the land about which the objection is made. This includes Natural England’s comments on the objection, copies of relevant reports, representations made on the report or any summary of representations and Natural England’s comments on them. The appointed person may require Natural England’s comments to include information on any relevant alternatives or rejected options. This is because it is not the role of the appointed person to repeat the work of Natural England in identifying all alternatives; this mechanism enables the appointed person to be in possession of all the information that Natural England has gathered that is relevant to the objection, and the alternatives that Natural England has considered. Paragraphs 7 and 8 say that anyone may make a representation to the Secretary of State on the coastal access proposals. Representations from certain bodies, and representations from the persons set out in regulations, which I mentioned earlier, will go in full to the Secretary of State together with Natural England’s comments on them. Other representations will be summarised by Natural England and sent to the Secretary of State with Natural England’s comments. Paragraph 9 requires the Secretary of State to send information on admissible objections to the appointed person. Paragraph 10 says that the appointed person will consider the information and if he is minded to decide that a fair balance has not been struck he will publish the objection and invite representations. Anyone can make representations to the appointed person. The intention here is that the appointed person is required to make a preliminary decision that a fair balance has not been struck but that there are still a number of steps to carry out before he is able to make a final recommendation. Paragraph 13 provides that the appointed person may limit the proceedings to written representations, or he may hold a hearing or local inquiry where he considers it necessary or expedient to do so. Paragraph 11 deals with the recommendation of the appointed person to the Secretary of State as to whether he should determine that the proposals fail or do not fail to strike a fair balance. If he recommends that they do fail to strike a fair balance, then the appointed person must recommend either that no modification would strike the fair balance, a certain modification would strike the fair balance, or a certain modification may strike the fair balance. Where he recommends that no modification would strike a fair balance, he may additionally recommend that a certain modification would, or may, mitigate the effects of the failure to strike a fair balance. Any modification must be in accordance with the criteria set out in paragraph 3(6), which I mentioned earlier. The Secretary of State makes a determination on the report as a whole. In making the determination, he must consider certain information including any objections, Natural England's comments on them, the report from the appointed person and any representations made and Natural England's comments on them. This is set out in paragraph 16. At this stage, it will be for the Secretary of State to consider whether he should approve the proposals with certain modifications, which in the opinion of the appointed person either might, or would, mitigate the effects of the failure to strike a fair balance. The Secretary of State could approve the proposals with a modification so that they came as close as possible to meeting a fair balance in accordance with the coastal access requirements. We recognise that there may be some instances where the Secretary of State might consider that there was no practicable route that would strike a fair balance because of the effect on the landowner, but where in the circumstances the option of leaving a gap in the route would not appear to strike a fair balance either, for instance, because of the inconvenience of a gap in the route or because access would be denied to particularly attractive coastline. In these cases, the Secretary of State would look at the option, which came closest to providing a fair balance. The Secretary of State must give notice of his determination to persons with a relevant interest in affected land or publish such notice, and must give notice to certain bodies. The notice must include, so far as is relevant to the objection, a statement of his reasons for the determination. That is set out in paragraph 17. I apologise for going through this procedure in some detail. Clearly, it is an important procedure, and I hope that this has been useful in aiding understanding of how it will work. It has been carefully structured so that it reflects the structure of the Bill. I am very grateful to noble Lords who have taken part in our discussions, many of whom are in the Chamber. As regards the amendments tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, I realise that we have not quite met all concerns, but I do think that in general—I welcome the support of the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, for this—we have achieved the right balance that noble Lords have sought. I beg to move.