Call for east of England coast trail to tackle lack of access to green space

A trail along the east coast of England should be created because farmland is preventing people who live there from having access to nature, a Tory-linked thinktank has said.

- Helena Horton

A report from Onward has found that in most rural areas people enjoy extensive rights-of-way networks. But across the east of England there are many areas of the countryside with barely anywhere to walk.

This, the report said, was because of large areas of high-grade farm-land in that area but also because Lincolnshire has the largest backlog for recognition of historical but unrecorded rights of way, with more than 450 outstanding applications.

According to green space metrics created by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the nature charity Wildlife and Countryside Link, half of local authorities in the worst 10% in terms of access to nature are in eastern England. Almost 90% of local authorities in the region have below-average access to green space.