£5m confirmed to finish coast path by 2020

The Deputy Prime Minister today confirmed extra funding to speed up the completion of coastal paths around England on a visit to Port Gaverne in Cornwall.

The cash will go towards completing England’s vital coastal walkways by 2020, ten years earlier than planned.

The Deputy Prime Minister made the commitment in a speech in September, and can today confirm the details of funds being made available.

Under the current trajectory, 40 per cenct of coastal paths around England will be ready by 2020. But the Deputy Prime Minister wants this sped up so that all paths around England are open for walkers by 2020.

Additional funding of £44,000 this year and £5.26m in 2015-16 will provide a boost to the scheme that will ensure local people and tourists alike can enjoy the British coastline at its best as soon as possible. Further funding will then be allocated in the following years until completion.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: “Britain has a beautiful coastline that deserves to be explored and enjoyed by everyone, whether you’re a resident or a tourist.

“But opening these coastal paths was taking far too long. Under the current timescale we would have built UK’s first space port before you could walk the length and breadth of our coast.

“This extra funding will mean these stunning paths will be open in just over five years, to be enjoyed by this generation and all those to follow.”

Under these plans, creating and maintaining coastal paths will provide a walking route and also a wider margin of land around the coast of England for walkers to use safely. The path will be able to move inland if the coastline erodes or suffers from landslips.