PUBLIC ACCESS

                                    PUBLIC ACCESS

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

There are two Public Rights of Way which are connected to the beaches at Carlyon Bay - one at the eastern end from the South West Coast Path to Fishing Point above Polgaver; it does not officially give access to Polgaver itself but people have used it for generations. The other is from Beach Road, down the access road to Crinnis and across the old Coliseum site towards the foreshore.

This was opened on 1st February 2010, six years after the route was blocked by Ampersand (now called CEG) with fences and barriers. It had been used as the main route to the beach by locals and visitors during decades of public use - going across the car park in front of the Coliseum building and under an arch on to the beach. It was finally granted official recognition as a Public Right of Way by Cornwall County Council in April 2008 following years of hard work and determination by local footpath campaigners, Gloria Price and Frances Taylor. (A third footpath across the Carlyon Bay golf course linking Sea Road to the South West Coast Path was also officially recognised.)

But a question mark remains over future access to the beach because if a wall and promenade are built (and so far there are no plans to be viewed) the Right of Way will end at the wall and once again access to the foreshore will be at the whim of the developer. For locals remember that in 2004 a line of rock armour and shuttering was built without a shred of planning permission which blocked access to the beach except by a permissive path from steps down the cliff face from the top car park. That shuttering was finally removed in 2011 after CEG obeyed an Enforcement Order - but only after years of delay. Mrs Price and Mrs Taylor are trying to get the existing Public Right of Way extended so that access to the beach is guaranteed - the application is currently with Cornwall Council, which so far has been in no hurry to make a decision!

The beaches at Carlyon Bay have been enjoyed by the public for generations This letter was sent to Carlyon Bay Watch by Ron Hicks from Fowey, who was born in 1923.
"I can truly say I did on many occasions when I was about 9 years old and after, ride on old Raleigh roadster bicycle from Fowey to the beach at Crinnis - now known to some as Carlyon Bay beach and other individual names. Crinnis beach used to be considered to be the whole beach. Access to the beach was down a track, now the road, which stretched the whole length of the beach fairly close below the cliffs. The further along you went the more overgrown the track became. The wild plants, bushes and small trees contained a remarkable quantity of wildlife, small birds, rabbits, butterflies and numerous insects. The cliffs still contain a number of rare birds and other wildlife. This track was used by farmers to collect sand and seaweed from the beaches and in the mining period for the miners to reach their workings."

Sadly that track, along with the bushes and trees, have been destroyed
by the developer. CEG says the paths were not public footpaths but, as part of its massive development plans for hundreds of apartments and houses on the site, that access will continue. We believe that relying on this or any future owner to stick to those assurances would mean public access being by permission only and over time could be lost. This is the reason it's been so important to get access routes to the beach recognised as Public Rights of Way and enshrined in law.

Local Title Deeds and Rights of Access
The houses in Carlyon Bay were built on land originally owned by the Carlyon Estate (a family whose home is still at Tregehan). During the campaign to have the beaches declared a Village Green, Carlyon Bay Watch was given access to many of the Title Deeds of properties in the area. A significant number shared a common easement, granting rights of access to the roads and footpaths of the old Carlyon Estate in perpetuity and other associated benefits.

The clause within the Title Deeds (which also applies to CEG's registered title to the beach) refers to "specific rights granted" to the owners of numerous properties in Sea Road, Beach Road, Edinburgh Close, Appletree Lane, Gloucester Avenue, Windsor Drive, Chatsworth Way, Haddon Way and Fairway and is similar to the following:
"Full right and liberty for the Purchaser and its successors in title and all other persons authorised by the Purchaser or its successors in title in common with the vendors and all other persons who have or may hereafter have a like right at all times and for all purposes to pass and repass over and along all roads and parts of roads and footpaths as now existing or as subsequently widened on the Estate and in the case of the said roads with or without horses carts carriages wagons or motor cars."

Carlyon Bay Watch has challenged CEG over the blocking of the rights of access granted by those easements and their lawyers are examining the documents we have collected.