Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]

We move on to part 9 of the Bill, on coastal access. Many Members might feel, like me, that that part of the Bill has been bolted on to 300 clauses of very important marine Bill. That has risked diverting some of our energies and intentions away from an important part of the Bill. We all want to see more access to our countryside in all its forms: whether this was the right part of the Bill to do that is questionable, but we are where we are. It is most important that we be up front with the British public about what we can achieve. Charles Clover, who has already been mentioned, wrote in yesterday's The Sunday Times that""a study by Natural England, the access quango, found that the amount of public access to the coast, of one kind or another, was…84 per cent. Of the remaining 16 per cent., half comprises ports and harbours."" According to Natural England's own figures, therefore, we are talking about 8 per cent.