Strolling past the sky-blue beach huts hugging the coastline between Whitstable and Herne Bay, those enjoying the latest section of the 2,704-mile (4,350km) King Charles III England coast path this winter might spot the orange-red bills of the oystercatchers wading in the low tide or the turnstones flipping over beach pebbles with sharp beaks.
On a fine day, walkers who look to the horizon should be able to make out the Maunsell forts among the wind turbines on the Kent flats, armed towers built to provide anti-aircraft fire during the second world war.
A national trail around England’s coastline has been in the works since its was announced back in 2008 as one of Gordon Brown’s big ideas as prime minister, but with sections being completed every few months, Natural England now believes that by the the end of next year, the vast majority of what will ultimately be the longest managed pathway in the world will be finally open to business.
Just 26 miles of the pathway have yet to be submitted to the government for approval. To date, 383 miles are awaiting approval while 2,295 miles have been signed off, meeting the expectations of ministers and locals alike. Of those, 1,255 miles have “establishment works” in hand or pending and 1,040 miles have been completed.
“I think in terms of what’s walkable, the vast majority will be walkable by the end of 2024 and given everything that has happened, that’s pretty impressive,” said Neil Constable, the path’s programme manager.
It has taken 15 years, six prime ministers and a name change to get to the cusp of completion. The government decided on the king’s coronation to add him to the official title, meaning the signage will not be consistent for now between the stretches already completed and those yet to be finished.
The timetable does not quite live up to the government’s official target of having entirely completed all 67 sections by the end of 2024. But then the mammoth project has rarely been a walk in the park.
A managed route allowing an ambitious walker to enjoy the delights of Scarborough Castle and Robin Hood’s Bay, and the Amble to Bamburgh stretch in the north-east, and then hike on to take in Land’s End and the Penhale Sands between Newquay and Penzance in the furthest south-western section, has been an ambition of recreation and countryside groups since 1949.
It had been hoped it would be completed in a decade when the project was first proposed by Brown’s government and it was legislated for in the Marine and Coastal Access Act in 2009. Wales completed an 870-mile path round its coast in 2012.
But hostility by some of England’s coastal landowners and coalition cuts to the Natural England budget after the global financial crash led to the first of many delays.
As deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg vowed in 2014 to set things right. He was “pleased to announce today that the government will be ensuring that the path is completed by 2020 by allocating extra funding”. Natural England provides the funds for local authorities to do the necessary works on the pathway.
Then a ruling in 2018 by the European court of justice on a case relating to Irish wind turbines had the effect of forcing Natural England to reassess all areas of the path that had European conservation designations to make sure they had done their paperwork properly. Then Covid hit.
Constable said: “I didn’t have that one on the risk register. Then when everything was up and running, local authorities had a huge backlog of stuff they had to do.
“So what followed up after Covid was a shortage of materials and huge price rises. It was about the same time that that huge ship got stuck in the Suez canal. Suddenly we were seeing prices doubling for steel, timber, cement. Local authorities who were used to being able to go and get 50 bags of cement were being told you have two. That’s settled now, but prices remain high. [There have been] huge knock-on effects and you’re dealing with 54 local authorities.”
About 25,000 owners or occupiers have been consulted over the route of the coastal path but the objection rate is just 2.4%. There is a “roll back” policy ensuring that any approved route disturbed by coastal erosion can be simply pushed back inland without fuss. But the stories behind the stretches yet to be submitted for government approval highlight the tricky job Natural England has faced at times.
They include a path on the outskirts of the Lulworth Ranges, used by the British army for live firing, and a stretch past Osborne House, an English Heritage stately home built as a summer home for Queen Victoria. The concern with the latter is that that non-paying visitors would gain access to the estate.
Then there is part of the stretch around the Rother estuary where it was initially believed it would not be possible to go up the river due to road safety issues and that the coastal walk would have to be interrupted. “That issue has been resolved so it now means we could potentially create a continuous route,” said Constable.
Wherever it can, Natural England has sought to keep the path continuous, although a ferry across the Mersey is necessary to follow that stretch of path in north-west England and some other quirky challenges can be found elsewhere in the country.
“We have one river where we have made the decision that you have to wade it at low tide, the River Erme in south Devon. That’s because we can’t get up the river because it’s exempted land,” Constable said, adding: “It’s part of the experience.”
• This article was amended on 29 December 2023. An earlier version stated that Scarborough Castle and Robin Hood’s Bay are “on the Amble to Bamburgh stretch” of walk, which is not the case.
