We are currently looking back on a twelve month period in
which exceptional strain has been placed on the many varied authorities who
between them are responsible for the repair and maintenance of the South West
Coastal Path.
Talking about the landslips and falls that had taken
place – these have been numbered in excess of 30 – the South West Coast Path
Association said that this number was “unprecedented”. However, they were
confident that the relevant repairs and diversions had probably secured its
future, and there was a hope that the most “vulnerable” stretches had already
fallen
Unsurprisingly the winter months tend to offer the most
danger, and in August local authorities said that they had allocated £1.45
million for repairs.
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| Hard year for the South West Coast Path |
Steve Church, representing the association, said because some of the falls had been so severe, permanent diversions had been put in place, and he cited stretches such as the ones near Looe in Cornwall and also near Beer in Devon.
Other areas have a "slight inland diversion", such as around a property or private land. Mr Church said in October there had been an "impressive cliff fall" near Portreath in Cornwall where a permanent inland path diversion had also been created.
He said: "We're not back to where we were last year, but we do have a path for the future. If we get another winter like last year, it's possible it could happen again. Some of the falls really came out of the blue, for example in parts of Devon and Cornwall where we hadn't had falls before which were quite unexpected. We're hoping the most vulnerable places fell last year," he added.
The path has a substantial effect on tourism in the South West of England, where the association said that research it had commissioned estimated the direct spend attributable to visitors to the coast path in 2011 was more than £380m. The 630-mile (1,000km) path runs from Minehead in Somerset to Poole Harbour in Dorset.
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