ON the Ordnance Survey map it looks like the perfect place to enjoy a stroll along one of the remotest stretches of shoreline in Yorkshire, if not England.

Out here, there is absolutely nothing else but mile after mile of sea, sand and . . . No Entry signs.

Try reaching the sea from the tiny hamlet of Grimston on the Holderness coast and you will come to a halt at a metal gate showing a notice that depicts a walker struck through with a red line. The way ahead is barred, despite the map showing a legal right of public access almost to the clifftop.

But even if you were to get within view of the beach, there is no clifftop path that will allow walkers to explore the miles of deserted coast extending in either direction. This is one of the longest sections of inaccessible shoreline in England.

That may soon change, however. According to the government's countryside advisors, Natural England, for an island nation like Britain it should be a basic human right to have access to virtually every inch of coast. The idea is that anyone should be able to go to the coast, turn left or right and be able to walk on a continuous footpath as far as they wish.

As one Natural England spokesman put it: "People want that certainty. Our research shows that 30 per cent of the coast has no access, and those parts that do have it contain gaps which prevent a continuous journey. Walking is the single most popular activity along the coast, and people want to be able to do it without bumping into an anguished farmer or landowner."

And so new legislation to create a footpath round the whole 2,500-mile coastline of England will be featured in the Queen's Speech later this year. The Marine and Coastal Access Bill will extend the principle of open access over large areas of England's uncultivated fells and moors which came into effect a few years ago under the Countryside and Rights of
Way Act.

In Yorkshire there are around 100 miles of coastline, and the new law would have its greatest impact between Bridlington and Spurn Point.

The northern stretch of seaside extending from the Cleveland-Yorkshire border down to the resort of Filey already has a continuous public footpath, thanks to the Cleveland Way National Trail. Of its 110-mile route around the North York Moors, established in 1969 as Britain's second long-distance path following the success of the Pennine Way, almost 40 miles are on the coast.

To the south of Filey, however, the right of access to the coast is broken in numerous places. An initial survey by Natural England found there were 18 such gaps. For example, a former holiday camp which is now fenced off blocks the way from Filey to the six miles of chalk headlands at Bempton – an RSPB Reserve with a public right of way along the clifftops – and Flamborough.

But it is south of Bridlington that Natural England believes it would have to create the most new footpaths on the Yorkshire coast. The East Riding's Holderness shoreline has, at best, only intermittent public access and one of its unwalkable stretches extends for more than 12 continuous miles.

Further difficulties are created by several caravan parks which extend along the clifftops, and two major North Sea gas installations.

But the biggest challenge provided by the Holderness Coast to the idea of a footpath around the whole of England is that this is one of the fastest-eroding shores in Europe. Any new footpath in Holderness would be a case of now you see it, now you don't.

That will not mean that the public right of access is washed away, according to Natural England. The right will simply "roll back" from the clifftop to the best, and the safest, available route.

In many places the path won't be simply a narrow ribbon. No uniform width will be applied to the proposed coastal access corridor, and Natural England says it will be tailored to meet local circumstances and only decided after consultation with local interested parties. In some place it would be about 12ft wide, and in areas which are away from uncultivated land there will be a legal right to spread off the path for activities like kite-flying and frisbee-throwing.

At the moment the details of the Bill have been published for scrutiny by Parliament, and in a year's time Natural England hopes to start negotiating the path's route with farmers and landowners.

If it becomes law, and no one believes it will fail, the route won't be established on the English coast overnight. More likely, it will be phased in area-by-area over a period of ten years.

Then the race will be on to be the first person ever to walk the Yorkshire Coast.