In a sensible world this Bill would not be a problem. Unfortunately we live in a country where the law does not give us adequate protection against the prejudices of a few influential people. We all know of councils and individuals who will abuse both their positions and the law in order to discriminate against us. This Bill gives them all they need to prohibit naturism on every beach in the country and that is not the only problem.
There are at least three:
It is difficult to judge how much impact our representations are having so if you want to write to a member of the House of Lords then now would be a good time.
The part of the Bill that concerns us is Part 9, Coastal Access which starts at clause 286. The Lords committee debated clauses 145-193 on 16 March and will next debate the Bill on 30 March. It is difficult to judge how quickly they will make progress but now would be a good time to write. I will prepare a list of appropriate Lords and put it on this page within the next few days.
Robin Hulfe, the BN Parliamentary Consultant, reccomended three memebrs of the House of Lords that we should write to. Malcolm Boura, the RLO, drafted a submission and covering letter which were improved substantially by discussion on the BN forums. There is link to the submission from the usual place on the BN web site.
Michael Farrar (Chairman) and Malcolm Boura (RLO) went to London to meet with officials from Defra. It was a useful meeting and we were able to exchange views and information. We did not expect to achieve anything more than that at the meeting although of course it would have been nice if we had.
About a week ago BN received a rather unusual invitation, so this morning I was up at the crack of dawn, or to be more accurate well before dawn, for the journey to London. I met up with Robin Hulfe at Defra and shortly afterwards we joined the Secretary of State and a pair of government ministers for breakfast. Now before you get the wrong idea, I should point out that there were quite a few other people there as well.
Over breakfast we were able to speak with representatives from several other organisations such as the National Trust and the Marine Conservation Society. Building up contacts can be very valuable.
Breakfast was followed by a Q&A session. There were no great surprises. The issues that we are concerned about are complex and difficult to deal with in that sort of forum so we didn't ask any questions.
The important bit was meeting some of the officials responsible for seeing the Bill through the parliamentary process. They were obviously familiar with the submission that we had made and appeared sympathetic concerning many of the issues. A meeting is going to be arranged between Defra, The Countryside Agency and ourselves to discuss the issues in more depth.
The Bill has been introduced in the House of Lords so that is where the discussion for the next few months will take place. Once the composition of the committee has been announced we will have a much better idea how to influence the process at that level.
We will be following up on the meeting with officials and awaiting developments in the Lords. No other action is required at present.
Malcolm Boura
Research & Liaison Officer
Please see the submissions if you require a detailed analysis of the problems posed by this Bill.
Coastal access is going to be implemented by amending the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CROW) and it will take on the same byelaw enabling powers. In particular there will be a power to make byelaws to prevent "annoyance". That is such an incredibly low threshold that it is effectively carte blanche to make byelaws simply because a few people do not like something.
Some important parts of CROW have not been tested in the courts and it is unclear what they actually mean. In particular some important terms such as "nuisance" and "annoyance" lack definition in the context of this Act.
The creation of a path around the coast where there was none before has obvious implications for the privacy of homes, clubs and beaches. The legal position of nudity in areas overlooked from a footpath is not clear so it will remove the right of many people to be nude in their own garden or at their club or beach.
The Bill seeks to improve access to the coast. This will increase use of the more remote beaches, the ones that are often traditionally naturist, and that will inevitably lead to conflict. It can be avoided but some councils point blank refuse to follow good practice.
Links will be added to the more useful of the documents on the government web sites but be prepared for a long read! There are over a thousand pages to wade through. The summaries give some idea but they often ignore the things that really matter and put a spin on the rest.
When an MP receives a letter about a Bill he will forward it with a covering letter to the appropriate minister. Replies are almost always be written by civil servants but the minister will be aware. Hence your one letter will have an impact in three very useful places. The reply will be sent to your MP who will forward it to you. There is a government webpage which will identify your MP and provide an address.
We have written to Defra and we will continue to pursue things through a variety of parliamentary channels. More about that as events unfold.
This is a quote from the summary of a recent government consultation.
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In total there were 3,899 consultation responses; these comprised 3,500 campaign-based responses and 399 non-campaign responses. Campaign responses were almost identical in content as respondents had been provided with a standard template by the organising campaign, whereas non-campaign responses were not identical to any other response. Although campaign responses represented the majority of the overall sample, they were near identical in nature. The focus of this analysis is therefore primarily on the non-campaign responses received. |
Individual letters carry far more weight than form letters or postcards so we are not going to provide form letters or postcards. Some of the points that should be made are below. Please change the wording, leave out ones that you think are unimportant and add your own. To help ensure that the letters have variety the points will be in a different order each time you visit this page.
When you send a letter to your MP please send a copy to the RLO. Email is preferred but paper is fine. When you get a reply please send that to us as well. Scans or photographs are great. We can analyse it, remove the spin, and put the results on the web so that the facts are clear. Knowing what the letters say helps tremendously with planning the campaign.
How to contact us.