Clause 297
Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]
3:15 pm
Huw Irranca-Davies (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Marine and Natural Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Ogmore, Labour)
I do not think that we need an amendment, but I would like to begin this part of our deliberations by putting a statement on record to see if any member of the Committee will demur from it. If we proceed with our proposals on the coastal path, the coastal margin and parks and gardens, which I am committed to, and any future Secretary of State—whether it is the hon. Member for St. Ives, the hon. Member for Newbury, or my hon. Friends the Members for Reading, West and Southampton, Test—finds that no dialogue has happened and that no additional land within what we can generally term parks has been opened up, we will have failed.
Part of our debate here is whether we can proceed in a way that is to do with voluntarism, dialogue and consensus, and can look at those places, where appropriate, where it does not damage habitat or the interface that has been talked about between the fashioning of that particular landscape and environment. There is a tradition of people straying on to such environments. Traditionally, they were either known as trespassers or poachers—myself not included, not that I would admit to it. However, if we return here without having made progress on this issue through constructive dialogue, we will have failed.