AC-2024-CDF-00018 - [2025] EWHC 2249 (Admin)

The Site has been disused for a number of years. The Interested Party currently operates its coasteering and kayaking business from premises approximately ½ mile to the north of the Site. The Interested Party is concerned that the lease of its current premises might not be renewed and is looking to the Site to provide replacement premises.

Coasteering is an omnibus term covering a range of activities which can take place on the coastline. Such activities include wild swimming; the exploration of coastal caves; low-level traversing (using partially submerged rocks to cross a small section of deep water); and jumping from cliffs into deep water. It is said to be suitable for those who regard themselves as intrepid adventurers who like to “get up close and personal with nature” and to “explore areas of coastline that most people would find it difficult to reach”. The Interested Party’s business involves the organisation of such activities together with kayaking and similar water-based sporting activity. One of the places in which the Interested Party organizes coasteering and kayaking is Ceibwr Bay, which is 1.6 miles by road and approximately 1 mile on foot from the Site.

In support of its application for planning permission the Interested Party contended that the effect of granting permission would be to enable an existing activity to continue. The business which it operated from the former premises would continue at the Site and the activity in Ceibwr Bay would not be new but would be a continuation of the coasteering which was already taking place (it appears that the Pembrokeshire Coast was one of the first places in the United Kingdom where coasteering took place). In reaching the Decision the Defendant took account of the fact that the Interested Party’s operation was an existing local business. However, it also had regard to the fact that the move to the Site had the potential to lead to an increase in the volume of coasteering activity. This was because of the improvement in the facilities which would be available to the Interested Party and to its customers. The premises from which the Interested Party was operating were a working farm and the Interested Party’s training and educational activities were taking place in disused former farm buildings. The Interested Party’s equipment was also stored in such buildings and the premises had limited parking and changing facilities. The proposed use of the Site would provide the Interested Party and its customers with improved storage and changing facilities together with increased car parking space and improved facilities for its educational work. As was explained on behalf of the Interested Party at the meeting of the Committee, the biggest constraint on the growth of the Interested Party’s business was the weather. The proposed development would increase the prospect of engagement in the Interested Party’s activities outside the peak season by providing facilities for changing in wet weather.

Although the Site itself is not in any environmentally protected area, Ceibwr Bay is in a number of such areas. Those are the Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation, the West Wales Marine Special Area of Conservation, and the Aberath-Carreg Wylan Site of Special Scientific Interest (“ACW SSSI”). In addition, members of species associated with the Skomer, Skokholm and Seas off Pembrokeshire Special Protection Area may be present in Ceibwr Bay at times. It follows that the activities organised from the Site will take place in an environmentally protected area. It also follows that any increase in the number of those taking part in the Interested Party’s coasteering activities will increase the volume of activity in that protected area.

Sections of the coastline of Ceibwr Bay are owned by the National Trust. That body only permits the Interested Party to use its land at Ceibwr Bay at certain times of the year and on certain conditions. Those restrictions are set out in the National Trust’s Pembrokeshire Coasteering Concordat (“the Concordat”). Although a copy of the Concordat was provided to the Defendant’s Planning Ecologist, Rebecca Blackman, and although she referred to it in her assessment, it is not a published document and its terms were not and have not been disclosed.

The Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum’s Marine Code (“the Marine Code”) is made up of a number of voluntary codes of conduct. These explain the ways in which those engaging in activity around the coast should behave in order to avoid disturbing the local fauna. The codes include codes of the behaviour needed to avoid disturbing seals and seabirds.