9. Public Access and Open Space Volume One contributors to the wellbeing of both residents and visitors. Open space areas in these locations also provide protection for important habitats and ecosystems. Other areas of open space, such as the Wither Hills Soil Conservation Reserve provide a valued landscape backdrop to Blenheim, an important recreation resource for walking and mountain biking and fulfil an important soil conservation function. There is a close relationship between providing for public access and areas of open space. This is particularly so where open space areas may only be able to be enjoyed by the wider community through some form of public access. To this extent there are close links between policies for public access and for open space. Issue 9A – Trying to meet community expectations that public access will be available to rivers, lakes and the coast. There is a history of community expectation in Marlborough that public access will be available to the coast, rivers, lakes and high country areas. Being able to meet those expectations is sometimes difficult, especially where access over private land is involved. (However, it is important to recognise that the public have no right of access across private land without express permission from the landowner.) Although public access is coordinated at a central government level through the Walking Access Commission, there are important issues to consider at the District level as well. This is because the effects arising from activities and the development of resources can physically impede public access, as well as affecting people’s enjoyment and recreational use of rivers, lakes, the coast and public land. Within the coastal marine area, structures such as jetties, marinas, moorings and boatsheds can enhance public access, especially in the Marlborough Sounds where substantial parcels of land are in private ownership. However, these structures do occupy public space and may in some locations detract from some people’s experience of the Sounds’ environment, or even affect access to land or areas in the coastal marine area. Activities such as marine farming, while bringing economic benefits to the District, can physically impede access over water and may also limit some people’s interest in using an area for recreational purposes. In some locations, public access can be physically difficult (e.g. coastal cliffs off the western side of Rangitoto - d’Urville Island) or even unavailable, as along some river margins and the coast, because of private ownership (riparian rights) or privately leased land. Public access may sometimes need to be restricted, for example for health and safety reasons in port areas, during forestry operations, in managing fire risk or to protect significant conservation values (such as those on some of the offshore islands of the Marlborough Sounds). [RPS, R, C, D] Objective 9.1 – The public are able to enjoy the amenity and recreational opportunities of Marlborough’s coastal environment, rivers, lakes, high country and areas of historic interest. Given the extensive nature of Marlborough’s land, freshwater and coastal environments, there exists a wide range of recreational and amenity opportunities for people to experience. To enable many of these opportunities, there needs to be a reasonable level of public access provided to our rivers, lakes and coast. The maintenance and enhancement of public access to these areas is a matter of national importance under the RMA. The objective also identifies the importance of providing access to high country areas and places of historic interest. Marlborough is fortunate to be served by networks of rivers, tributaries and streams that bring with them significant access opportunities. Many rivers have legal roads or other forms of public reserve running along their edges. This is particularly the case in the more populated area of the Lower Wairau Plain, where there has been a history of flood plain management with stopbanked river floodways. This has resulted in a high proportion of public ownership of riparian margins than in other areas of Marlborough, with public access more readily achieved. A fair amount of 9 – 2