Marine & Coastal Access Bill Expected to Hurt the Rights of Landowners

One of the laws the Labour Party wants to pass before the general elections, which will take place either this year or next, is the Marine & Coastal Access bill, which implies the creation of a walkable way across the English Coast. The majority of landowners are opposed to the prospective law. For instance, representatives of the Countryside Alliance – an organization that promotes land and countryside issues across the UK, agree that the new law might result in benefits to users, such as local communities and businesses of the access right; however, they claim that the Marine & Coastal Bill is likely to exert negative influence on the rights of existing users, such as local businesses and residents as well as on environmental issues. The Countryside Alliance experts are determined that the proposed bill has to be better balanced to protect the existing rights and to give new ones. The Country Land & Business Association (CLA) said that it finds the Government’s intentions to include the appeal clause into the Marine & Coastal Bill very important. The proposed clause will mean that owners of the coastal land will be able to appeal the public right of open access to their land. At the same time, representatives of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) – a British charity working in the sphere of birds and wildlife protection - claim that the bill, which is to be passed, represents a great opportunity to “put things right” in the sphere of marine environment. The organization is determined that the Government shall not miss this chance to introduce effective legislation. The experts of RSPB added that conservation provisions are being flawed because of the sub-clause, which allows the interference of socio-economic issues with the selection of sites that are to be protected; they claim that the selection and designation of sites has to be carried out on a purely scientific and conservation basis.