Exploring the Bournemouth Coast Path

Sandbanks Ferry, which links the Dorset Coast Path to the Bournemouth Coast Path, will be out of action from Monday 23 October to Sunday 19 November.

The vessel is due to make rare journey pulled by two tugs to Southampton for a three week refit which will include cleaning and repainting. This is the quietest period for traffic before the winter when sailing along the coast and painting is often more difficult.

The 150 Wilts & Dorset bus service which uses the ferry route will operate as a shuttle between Sandbanks and Bournemouth. Routes 142/143 which run from Swanage to Poole via Wareham will be extended to Studland and Bournemouth.

Barry Gardiner MP, Minister for Biodiversity, Landscapes and Rural Affairs, discussed the Solent coastline when he visited the New Forest to mark its designation as a national park.

The recently redrawn New Forest boundary runs almost to the Bournemouth Coast Path at Milford-on-Sea and embraces the start the Solent Way on Pennington Marshes.

The minister, having received a briefing from the New Forest National Park Authority at Queen’s House in Lyndhurst about the main challenges facing the Park, met key partners including the Verderers over lunch in the historic Verderers’ Hall.

Afterwards Mr Gardiner went on a short tour of the Beaulieu Road area in the south of the Forest led by members and senior staff from National Park Authority. Issues highlighted included coastal access and climate change.

Lindsay Cornish, Chief Executive of the National Park Authority, said: “As England’s newest, smallest and most densely-populated National Park, the New Forest faces a number of unique challenges which we will need the Minister’s help to tackle. This visit gave us an ideal opportunity to show the Minister these challenges first-hand.”

A stretch of the Bournemouth Coast Path has been closed for the Conservative Party Conference.

The sloping clifftop path running from the Highcliff Hotel down to Bournemouth Pier will not reopen until late on Wednesday 4 October.

Walkers from the west are advised to go inland at St Michael’s Road and turn right at the main road to reach the bottom of the hill. The pier is to the right of the roundabout in front of the Royal Exeter Hotel.

The path closure is part of the £1.7m security operation to protect the conference which involves as many as 10,000 people present within the exclusion zone as representatives, observers, journalists, media workers, caterers and exhibition stallholders.

Television channels are planning to use the wide clifftop coastpath with its magnificent Poole Bay backdrop for reports and interviews.

“Detailed planning has ensured that Dorset Police is ready for the challenge of preventing terrorism and other threats through vigilance, high visibility patrols and the effective use of intelligence” says Superintendent David Griffith who is co-ordinating Operation Pegasus 2006.

Dorset Police has been joined by colleagues from Hampshire and the Channel Islands.