While England waits for the Government to deliver on its commitment to coastal access, Wales is gearing up for the launch of its own version on 5 May. The new Wales Coast Path is 870 miles long, and links with the Offa’s Dyke Path to create a loop that encompasses Wales in designated trails totalling 1,030 miles. It’s the first coast path around an entire country – although the Wales Coast Path is not a designated National Trail.

The launch will cap five years of investment by the Welsh Government in improving access to its coastline, in partnership with the Countryside Council for Wales, sixteen local authorities and two National Parks. The new trail builds on the economic success of the Anglesey Coast Path and Pembrokeshire Coast Path National Trail, both of which have boosted Wales’ tourist economy.

The BMC has broadly welcomed the new Wales Coast Path, and is supportive of the work done so far. Yet there are fundamental differences between the approaches taken in England and Wales. In England, the 2009 Marine and Coastal Access Act will create a corridor of open access, although as previously reported here, the Coalition is moving very slowly in delivering what the legislation promises. This gives the public – and climbers – similar rights to those enjoyed under CRoW.

The Wales Coast Path, by contrast, is simply what it says it is, a designated walking trail, mostly along existing rights of way. Some stretches are along bridleways, which will include cyclists and horse riders, as well as walkers. Objections from landowners mean that in some places the trail turns inland to circumvent their property, sometimes by as much as two or three kilometres.

The Welsh Government says it will continue to improve “the quality and alignment of the route… to ensure that the path follows the Welsh coastline as close as it is safe and practical.” Along with £2m funding from Cardiff and coastal local authorities, the European Regional Development Fund has allocated £4m over four years to the project.

While the Wales Coastal Path is good news for walkers, the BMC will continue to lobby the Welsh Government for further improvements to this welcome – and people-friendly – new piece of British infrastructure. “We’ve always said the Welsh Government should look at the corridor approach,” says Elfyn Jones, BMC officer for Wales. “Maybe not everywhere, but where it’s appropriate.”

The BMC has already lobbied the Welsh Government’s Environment Minister John Griffiths about possible improvements to the route and structure of the Wales Coast Path, and Jones will be out walking with the minister soon to press the case for improved access for climbers as well as walkers.

The launch ceremony of the Wales Coast Path will be a welcome boost for Welsh tourism, but it comes against a backdrop of low investment and degrading infrastructure for National Trails. Natural England wrote to stakeholders this month warning that: “Highway Authorities’ budgets are at a threshold below which it will become increasingly difficult for them to continue to maintain the Trails in anything like an acceptable standard.”

For further details on the Wales Coast Path, see:

http://walking.visitwales.com/long-distance/wales-coast-path/

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