Troubled Waters: The Unifying Influence of Conservation and Public Health on the Access Provisions of the Marine and Coastal Access Act

The Marine and Coastal Access Act, amongst its other aims, is intended to ‘build on existing access legislation to create a route around the coast of England’ (Foreword to the Draft Marine Bill, HMSO 2008). As such the Act can be seen as a continuation of the access objectives of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, and possibly as a vindication of the success of the original Act. The broad objectives of access, land management and conservation are present in both pieces of legislation, though it remains to be seen whether the access provisions of the Marine Act will enjoy the same level of funding as those of the CROW Act. This paper investigates the origins of the Marine Act, and in particular the power and influence of tourism, nostalgia and environmentalism on the emergence of this legislation.