Britain’s biggest coastal landowner is calling on the new government to make good on a promise made under the coalition to create a footpath all around England’s coast. The National Trust is becoming increasingly concerned that the plan, which was championed by the Liberal Democrats, could founder under the Tories.

Helen Ghosh, the charity’s director-general, said: “We strongly support the plans for a coastal path that allows people to enjoy the whole coastline, walking through a landscape that is rich in wildlife and heritage. We’ll work with government agencies, partners and other landowners to help deliver this vision.”

The call coincides with the announcement by the trust of a new acquisition in north Wales – a lovely piece of wildlife and archaeology-rich land on the Great Orme headland, home to rare butterflies, unique plants and nimble Kashmiri goats. Wales already has an 870-mile footpath around its coast and organisations such as the National Trust and the Ramblers were pleased when the former deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, announced in September last year that the building of a 3,000-mile coastal path around the entire English coast would be complete by 2020.

The £40m coastal path also appeared in the Lib Dem manifesto. The party promised: “We will complete the coastal path, boosting tourism and letting people explore the UK’s incredible natural heritage.” But the Lib Dems’ disastrous general election results could be bad news for the path.

Organisations including the National Trust argue that the creation of a coastal footpath will be a hugely popular and money-making piece of infrastructure. The Welsh path generated more money for the local economy than its £13m cost within its first year, while England’s south-west coast path creates £436m annually for the regional economy and supports 10,000 jobs.

For the charity, the timing of the footpath issue and the Great Orme acquisition is apposite. This year is the 50th anniversary of its Neptune campaign to protect areas of coastline under threat from development. The first Neptune acquisition was also in Wales – Whiteford Burrows on Gower near Swansea – and it now cares for 775 miles of coastline across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Ghosh said: “Over 50 years, the extraordinary generosity and support of people from across the world have enabled us to buy some of the most beautiful, dramatic and diverse coastline on these islands, enabling people to enjoy them and protecting them from development for generations to come. This campaign has tapped into that deep sense of connection with, and love of, the coast.



“Without this, our coastline could look very different today. Our priorities for the future are to help create opportunities for people to enjoy the coast, protect our wonderful coastal heritage and to enrich the wildlife living on our shores.”

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has provided little comfort for footpath fans. A Defra source said it was “too early to speculate about departmental spending budgets at this time”, but added that funding for the project had always been committed on a year-by-year basis and money was in place for this year.

A Defra spokesperson said: “We have already opened up miles of our beautiful coastline for everyone to enjoy, boosting local tourism and growing the rural economy. We are working closely with Natural England to build on the progress we have already made.”

Meanwhile, the Great Orme, which includes the 140-acre Parc Farm, is regarded as a particularly fine catch for the Trust. On a summer’s day, when the short grass has turned a silver-grey, it feels a little like a slice of rocky Mediterranean coastline magically plonked on the Irish Sea. A good example of a limestone heath, it is full of rare plants, with esoteric names such as goldilocks (a type of aster), hoary rockrose, Nottingham catchfly, spiked speedwell, spotted cat’s-ear, Welsh hawkweed and wild cotoneaster – which occurs nowhere else in the world.

In midsummer, parts of the Orme swarm with tiny bright butterflies – the dark blue north Welsh subspecies of the silver-studded blue. The limestone crags, where feral Kashmir goats perch, also support a unique race of the grayling butterfly. Several rare moths occur, notably the silky wave – a small, day-flying white moth that occurs only on Gower, in the Avon Gorge, and on the Great Orme.

The area also features caves where the earliest signs of human occupation in north Wales were found and a large complex of Bronze Age copper mines. The acquisition means that plans to create a golf course here are off and control of the farm means that a grazing plan favourable to flora and fauna can be put in place.

• This article was amended on 27 May 2015 to correct a reference to “flounder” rather than “founder”.

