In 2013 the Quayside public footpath was set up to connect the Harbour Village with the existing footpath across the Braid and it was to follow the quay-edge along Coble Quay and through the premises of the Amble Boat Company Ltd.

For mutual security and safety the working areas of the Amble Boat Company were to be separated from it by a 1.8m high welded mesh paladin fence.

A recent picture which includes a bunk house planned in 2017, built over the slipway lower left and also shows the section of the footpath that now runs between the three blocks of flats and the marina built by the then owner of the Amble Boat Company in the intervening four years.

The footpath had also been diverted by the Amble Marina boat park which had been extended a bit over half way towards Coquet Street and a temporary car park made it necessary for the diversion of the footpath to continue along to Coquet St, the line of which is indicated by the rear of the housing, shown on the top right of the picture.

Amble Boat Yard

It currently runs along the boundary of the land claimed by Amble Marina as shown in the detail from from the full location plan from 1301349.

The full location plan includes the path that ran along the south west side of 28 Coquet Street and shows the slipway for a sailing club if one examines the detail more closely one will see that what was to become part of the English Coastal Path was marked as the path that gave access to Shore Base).

1

It also shows the slipway that was used by both the sailing club and Shore Base and was included in the location plan for the marina. Amble Marina were given neither the path labelled:- Entrance to coquet shorebase. (existing) which points directly to the slipway, nor the car park adjacent to the garage in the detail given at the foot of page 1.

The planning department of Northumberland County Council (NCC) were clearly wise to the attempted land grab by the owner of Amble Marina since the car park was excluded from their plans and it remains so to this day.

The car park was still free in August 2022 but by that time access to the side of the marina and onto river Coquet had appeared to have been denied? The slipway shown as part of the sailing club became useless for many years as the only access to it was from the public footpath that ran from Coquet Street to the corner of the marina.

Plans to close the slipway were made in 2017 when the Council Gave permission for Radcliffes Lodge to be built. The barrier was placed across Coastal Path in August 2021with a note that read:- Apologies for any inconvenience, footpath closed until until further notice, due to unsafe hand railings.

The Bunk House (Radcliffes Lodge)

Application – 17/02896/FUL, 14-Jul-17
Applicant Details – Tony Pull, Coble Developments Ltd
Agent – Jon Tweddle, Radcliffes Lodge, NE65 0FB
Site Plan: Mario Minchella Architects

What was to become part of the English Coastal Path is clearly shown running along the top of the marina quay in front of the 3 blocks of flats, (where it is shown as a promenade).

In front of the proposed bunk house and the boundary between the bunk house and the boat park for Amble Marina is says it says the existing public footpath is to be retained.

Within a month, a retrospective application for the erection of aluminium individual fixed letters and logo was received, and the owners appear to have persuaded the agent to include the footpath which had been part of the Amble Marina Development as part of Radcliffes Lodge property.

Application – 21/03580/ADE, 08-Sep-21
Applicant:- Coble Developments Limited, Radcliffes Lodge, NE65 0FB Directors – Antony Pull and Nicolas Spurr
Agent:  – Mario Minchella Architects Unit 4, Witney Way, NE35 9PE

2

The footpath, previously shown as a promenade, was clearly not included in the development that included the four blocks of flats but the footpath serving the former slipway was, by September 2021, shown as belonging to owner of Radcliffes Lodge.

Between the Amble Boat Yard, and the Bunkhouse there are the four block of flats and Radcliffe’s Bar and the applications for these were made in two separate applications. One in 2013 for three blocks of flats and an eatery which was to become Ratcliffes Bar and one two years later for the much larger block of flats set facing in more northerly direction than the first three blocks. Please refer to plan at the foot of page 2.

It is clear from the plans submitted in 2013 for the three blocks that both the slipway into, and the foot path along side, the marina still exited. The latter having been renamed by the agent as a promanade.

The first application  13/03731/FUL, 05-Dec-13 Applicant Details – Tony Pull,
Coble Developments Ltd Radcliffes Lodge, NE65 0FB
Directors – Antony Pull and Nicolas Spurr
Agent  – Mario Minchella Architects Unit 4, Witney Way, NE35 9PE

The three blocks of flats duly appeared with the footpath between the new flats and mean high water sill extant but the one between them and the Sailing Club had gone and it looks like the development had been built over the footpath but it had not. It is still there, see The English Coastal Path – Amble, August 2022 on the page below.

The second Application
15/03472/FUL, 10-Oct-15 was for 1 block of flats, Site Address: 14 Coquet St, Amble
Applicant – Tony Pull, Coble Developments Ltd Radcliffes Lodge, NE65 0FB
Directors – Antony Pull and Nicolas Spurr Agent – Mario Minchella Architects Unit 4, Witney Way, NE35 9PE

3

The boundary between it and the earlier block of flats is clearly shown as is the path the running beside Mean High Water and n.b. the walls of the quay are vertical and topped with railings. The photograph is of the barrier placed where quay alters direction by about 10° and was taken from in front of the fourth block, the location of which more easily located from the plan at the foot of page 2.

The drawing A-00 (Project 3314), prepared for Mr Tweddle by his architect in February 2020, shows a 3m wide part of the footpath to be retained as part of the development and it comes to an abrupt stop.

Application – 21/03144/FUL, 03-Aug-21 Applicant Details – Sidney Scott, Coble Marina Limited
Directors – Sidney Scot and Derek Kewley Amble Boat Yard, Coquet Street, NE65 0DJ
Agent – Jon Tweddle, Jon Tweddell Planning Ltd, Coble Quay, NE65 0FB
Architect – Mario Minchella Architects

The English Coastal Path – Amble, August 2022

In the last few years access to the Quayside public footpath, planned to run alongside the marina and onto the Braid has become blocked. During that time, it became part of the English Coastal Path, and in the same eight years permission to build the luxury flats was granted by the NCC and the proposed bunk-house had become Radcliffes Lodge, a boutique hostel.

I had written to the NCC in Sept 2021 about the closure of footpath between Radcliffes Lodge and the Amble Marina boat park but the response showed that they had clearly sided with the property developers against those that used to appreciate the freedom to use the English Coastal Path:-

“It is not considered that blocking a Public Right of Way
amounts to a breach of planning. Accordingly, we have no control over this matter and I intend to close my file in relation to your enquiry.

Meanwhile a spokesperson had told the Ambler: “NCC understands the concerns raised locally about the closure of this popular walkway. The walkway is not a public Right of Way and has been closed by the landowner, Amble Marina due to safety concerns.” I had of course been confusing ‘a right of access’ with ‘a Public Right of Way’ and I should have been corrected by the NCC Officer who responded negatively to my request that the barriers be removed.

He also would have known that English Coastal Path was not a right of way and was well out of order when he referred me on:- Should you have any queries please contact our Public Rights of Way Team.

He should have been reminding whoever was responsible for repairing the railings to get it done, rather than colluding with those who chose to deny others and I from access to the English Coastal path.

In the meantime, the Apologies for the inconvenience had been replaced by a No Unauthorised Entry sign.

4

As one can see from the planning applications detailed on pages 3 and 4, it appears the planning officers of the NCC have been giving bits of the of the English Coastal Path to various developers over the years.

It would appear that neither the owner of the Marina nor those who own Radcliffes Lodge wished to be responsible for the damaged handrail and their solution is to deny access to the public and in this they were aided by an NCC enforcement officer.

The portion of the path with the broken fence is now appears to belong to the owners of Radcliffes Lodge, see retrospective permission to add the name of Radcliffes Lodge to the bunk house in September 2021.

The directors of Coble Developments Limited are Messrs Pull and Spurr and the agent is Mario Minchella Architects and they had switched the plans which said, the existing public footpath is to be retained, see 17/02896/FUL to ones that omitted the note, 21/03580/ADE. Thus the ownership of that part of the ECP was passed to the directors of Coble Developments and the part that ran between Radcliffes Lodge and Amble Marina’s boat park was given to the owner of Amble Marina.

The walkway or promenade is not technically a Right of Way but is is still part of the English Coastal Path and Amble Marina have had a year to fix the railing. Clearly the owner will never bother to fix the railings unless he told to fix it and that is not going to happen while the NCC enforcement officers are quite prepared to do nothing.

At the other end of the disappearing section of the English Coastal Path, the architect appointed by the agent for Messrs Scot and Kewley drew the Coastal Path finishing about 5m short of the nearest block of flats.

The detail is from Mario Minchella Architect’s site plan drawn in February 2020. It shows the Coastal Path finishing about 5m short of the nearest block of flats.

The note says:- 3m wide Coastal path to be retained as part of development

It would appear that when the final development to turn the last boatyard on the North East Coast into a private estate of luxury housing and lets, another one of those, No Unauthorised Entry signs will get attached to yet another barrier to the English Coastal Path.
Access to the mooring pontoon will also be denied.

MD, 27 August 2022