This, says MSE, could have a significant effect on future provision for the marine industry in the face of pressures for increased housing needs amongst other planning issues.

'This is a real breakthrough,' said Jonathan Williams, Marine South East chief executive. 'Over the past couple of years we have been plugging away at this issue and working to represent the industry at a regional level and ensure that the trend for shrinking access to the water doesn’t continue.'

However, he added, this isn’t the end of the issue. 'The inspectors’ recommendations need to be reflected in the final regional spatial strategy and we then need to ensure that the resulting policy is reflected in individual planning cases.'