Despite the wet weather, on the anniversary of the King’s Coronation (Monday) Islanders turned out to protest against plans for the King Charles III England Coast Path to be diverted inland at East Cowes, along busy roads, instead of going through the estates of Osborne House and Barton Manor.
In the morning, East Cowes Town Hall hosted an exhibition and talk, chaired by Kate Ashbrook, the Vice-President of The Ramblers, which attracted more than 60 people, before those attending joined a protest walk to historic Osborne House, the former holiday home of Queen Victoria, which is now managed by English Heritage.
£1.5m available for IW improvements
The Ramblers say they’d welcome the opportunity to explore with English Heritage and Natural England/DEFRA a practical approach to maintaining security for the Osborne estate and securing funds to achieve this.
The England Coast Path is a scheme funded by the government and about £1.5m is currently available to create improvements around the Island.
Ashbrook: The current path is absolutely abysmal
Kate Ashbrook said,
“Last year the England Coast Path was named after King Charles III, and yet there is a real threat that it will not go through the grounds of Osborne House, which was owned by his great great great grandmother, and is now owned by the nation. The path should go along the coast.
“The current path is absolutely abysmal because it goes along a busy A-road. There is very little footway, some of the way there’s no footway. It goes for miles along that road. That is not a coast path. That is not a wonderful experience. It’s horrible.
“People might arrive by ferry at Fishbourne and want to walk along the coast to East Cowes, they can’t. There is a real opportunity to have a magnificent path here. I’ve seen it, it’s beautiful. And yet, there is a real problem. Because Natural England, English Heritage and the Crown Estate are not helping at all. But we, The Ramblers, are determined to persuade them to put the path along the coast.”
Howarth: The coast path could be worth £50-£60 million pounds in revenue income
David Howarth, Isle of Wight Ramblers, said,
“The legislation was passed in 2009. The Ramblers made sure that the Island was actually included in the scheme to produce the 2,700 mile England coast path, which is a national trail. So it’s going to be the first national trail on the Island. This is a tourism asset.
“We really want 100,000 people a year to come and use the coast path which could be worth £50-£60 million pounds in revenue income. And we want the very best path that we can get.
“We don’t want to be walking along main roads or narrow roads. We want to be walking by the coast, the Coast Path Act says that it should be by the sea.
Stuart: Would like to see some engagement from English Heritage and Natural England
Nick Stuart, the Isle of Wight councillor for Brighstone Calbourne and Shalfleet and prospective parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the next election, said,
“The coastal footpath, really, for me needs to be around the coast. And so you come to a place like East Cowes, and you divert the footpath along a major road. That seems foolish.
“You have Osborne estate, which is one of the the crown jewels of English Heritage, and you would think that they would want to have people actually viewing it and to support the public.
“It’s the King Charles III coastal footpath. And you would have thought with the connection with the Osborne house has with the royal family, they will be only too happy to see that opened up. And of course that will open up other parts of the magnificent coastline that we have here on the Isle of Wight.
“One of the things that we’d like to see really is perhaps some engagement from English Heritage and Natural England to consider how things can work, not how things don’t work, or how they can avoid it, or how things could work.”
