The rather odd way that English beaches are not 100% open to the public in the way that they are in Scotland and Wales is to be addressed.
This is really good news and despite some moaning from landowners, is long overdue.
I always find it odd, when abroad, that beaches can be fenced off or owned by hotels. Whilst it isn't quite that bad in the UK, we are an island race and I think as a nation we have more of an affinity with our coast and the sea. It ought to be our right as citizens to have access to the coast, and soon it will.
Well don to the Labour Party for doing this.
2 comments:
I fundamentally disagree.
Land is owned by people, the government has no right to take it from them in this manner.
Property rights are fundamental to a liberal democracy.
The problem of land can be solved in many other ways, government forcing people to do things with their own property is not one of them which should be palatable to liberals.
Its also harmful in more direct ways. For example, surely this will lead to greater pollution and litter. People who have free access to the beach will not be bothered about keeping it tidy. The land owner has no interest since it will simply cost him money to clean up and he'll get no renumeration for his troubles.
Its a bad idea. There's no right to trample over other people's land because its by the sea.
Perhaps your experience is differnt from mine. I found it odd that as a council we were spending hundreds of thousands of pounds each year to defend the coast yet people who owned land adjoining the coast could ban me from walking there.
I think the right to roam the coast does not infring on people's property rights at all.
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