Wales Coast Path far from 'continuous' at Barry and Penarth

Barry and Vale FoE are very disappointed and critical of the lack of effort to implement the continuous coastal path within the Vale of Glamorgan. There's a huge gap east of Barry Island and another gap from Penarth Esplanade to the Cardiff Bay barrage.

This shows failure by officials to implement the declared concept of a "continuous" coast path. We raised this in March, the CCW official gave excuses (Countryside Council for Wales, see letter below) and CCW now talk of a "linked path". The local FoE group have asked the AM, Vaughan Gething to take up the particular gap in Penarth as well as the general failure.

1. Huge gap from Ty Hafan east of Sully to Barry Island, even omitting a km-stretch of the existing coast path to the Bendricks rocks.

As the Vale Council owns the Atlantic Trading Estate, the way from HMS Cambria to the lock at the mouth of Barry Dock has few problems.  Yet the CCW officials made no attempt to re-open the route across the lock to Barry Island, which the public used to use before ABP took over. The section of path from Ty Hafan hospice to the Bendricks rocks at the mouth of the Cadoxton river has been excluded, on the illegitimate excuse that the path and foreshore are owned by the hospice. Thus, we're given a huge diversion around Barry's chemical complex, along the main road through Cadoxton to the Docks Office and on further roads to Barry Island.

2. Failure to consider path around the base of Penarth Head, from the Barrage to Penarth Esplanade

The construction of this path was a commitment in the Cardiff Bay Barrage Act. The Vale of Glamorgan Council conceived a fancy, highly costly scheme (~£20million) that had to be cancelled.  But now, CCW are shielding the Welsh Government from this coast-path obligation. WAG did allocate £7.5 million to it in the Barrage Settlement, well over the Council estimate (£3million) for its cost at the time, to allow for costs in stabilising the cliff as coastal protection. FoE have asked the AM to put down a marker on this issue.

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CCW letter of  2/3/2012  relevant text extracts:

from Sue Rice, Access Programmes Manager                                 Ein cyf/Our ref:ATI 799

In respect of your recent enquiry 22 February 2012 for information (ATI 799) in which you

requested clarification on a number of points relating to the Wales Coast Path (WCP) in the Vale of Glamorgan, the route of which is shown on the attached plan.

Taking your points in order:

 

· Big gap between Bendricks rocks and Hayes Wood and public paths in the western dock

The WCP is routed around Barry Docks for a number of reasons. Firstly we wanted to ensure that the path was available 24/7, something that we could not guarantee if it was routed through the docks. Secondly it was felt that given the state of repair of much of the road surface in this area, and the considerable costs required to create a suitable path, the health and safety implications of using this route were unacceptable. When considering the route to the east of this area, regard was paid to the presence of Ty Hafan and I’m sure you would agree that it would be inappropriate to route the path through the grounds of this children’s hospice. As a result the route is as shown on the attached plan.

· No path around Penarth Headland to the Barrage

Whilst I appreciate that there have been plans in the past to create a route around Penarth headland to the Barrage, this has never formed part of the WCP. The costs of the proposed plan were far beyond the capabilities of our budgets, and it was felt that the health and safety implications related to rock falls and cliff erosion in this area made the creation of a path at the base of the cliffs impracticable. However, as a result the WCP does pass close to the centre of Penarth, ensuring that the town can take advantage of the economic benefits of the path.