The pressure on coastal areas from the sheer number of people visiting them can be great. Where pressures are continuous, coastal areas are bound to suffer damage.

Hundreds of visitors, day after day, walking over sand dunes, salt-marshes or along cliff tops, can wear away vegetation. Such problems of conservation exist on many coasts.

Harm from sports activities
Most visitors do not, of course, wish to harm wildlife, but some unwittingly do through their activities.

Sports, such as power boating, if pursued in the wrong places clash with the peace and quiet sought by many other visitors and wildlife.

Development of leisure facilities
Further pressures on the coast, especially outside designated areas, come from developments such as golf courses, marinas, visitor centres and car parks.

Increased leisure time and use of the car have resulted in more disturbance of once remote coastline.

The National Trust's answer to these kinds of problem is to draw up a management plan to help identify all the ways people want to use the coast. We want to try and balance the features that are important to us all.