Clause 290
Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]
5:15 pm
Richard Benyon (Shadow Minister, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Newbury, Conservative)
That is precisely what I am trying to achieve here. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for putting that point so eloquently.
One problem with the Bill is that, as with the CROW Act, there can be all sorts of exclusions. However, the majority of people who want to walk in the countryside are not the sort who sit down and look at the local authority website, buy a map, find out where exclusions exist and know when they are leaving farmer A’s land and moving on to farmer B’s and what exclusions and constraints are in place there. So we have to work with the grain of human nature and that means, at the basic level, having an exclusion zone around farm buildings and dwellings where people live. I hope that the Government will accept this important amendment.