Marine and Coastal Access Bill

Marine and Coastal Access Bill. © Crown Copyright 2008 Introduced to Parliament in December 2008, the Marine and Coastal Access Bill seeks radical changes to the frameworks governing economic activity and conservation in the marine environment. Along with similar measures in the devolved administrations, it will form the chief legislative instrument in the Government’s drive to achieve its vision for clean, safe, healthy, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas.
 
The Bill responds to rapidly intensifying pressures on our coasts and seas, coupled with firm evidence for serious and potentially irreversible impacts on coastal and marine ecosystems arising from man’s present activities on land and sea.  It will introduce a new forward-looking, strategic spatial planning system for the sustainable use and protection of the marine environment. The Bill allows for the creation of protected Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) and will also introduce a new right of recreational access to coastal land around England.

Under the Bill’s provisions, the Government will set out long term strategic policies and objectives for marine management in a Marine Policy Statement. That will guide a new Marine Management Organisation (MMO), to be based in Tyneside, in its preparation of more detailed Marine Plans for delivering those objectives in waters around England and for most matters in UK offshore waters. Responsibility for implementing the coastal access provision will rest with Natural England.

Walkers enjoying the South West Coast Path near Talland Bay, Cornwall  © Dave Hooley    The government acknowledges that delivering its marine spatial planning objectives in an integrated manner will require the MMO to access a sound evidence base of environmental and socio-economic data, allowing it to establish the spatial uses and needs of Marine Plan areas. Historic Seascapes Characterisation (HSC) is designed to provide just such a spatial assessment of the historic cultural character of the coastal and marine historic environment, presenting it in a manner interoperable with analogous databases for the natural environment.

HSC brings cultural context and time depth to our understanding of the sustainability issues we face today. Sustainable marine management will require changes in how people perceive the sea, their cultural attitudes to the sea, as well as in how they are constrained to use it. In demonstrating the historic cultural character present across all areas of our coasts and seas, HSC shows the connection between the sea and the experience and identity of everyone who uses our coast, the sea and their resources. That connection, essential for our move to a sustainable future, will be reinforced by the Bill’s coastal access provisions giving excellent scope and situations for raising public awareness about the close relationship between our actions and the character of the land, coast and sea at all levels. HSC offers a powerful resource well-attuned to conveying those messages.

Further information on the Marine and Coastal Access Bill can be found on the Defra website at:   http://www.defra.gov.uk/marine/legislation/index.htm