The designation of an area as a National Park has no impact on the question of who owns the land. If an area meets the statutory tests for National Park status, it can potentially be designated.

Many National Parks have areas of coastline within them. Natural England guidance states that where a marine boundary line is to be drawn, the boundary should follow the mean low water mark or the county boundary in the case of estuaries.

Thinking has also developed to recognise that the setting of a landscape can be integral to its character. Currently the Lake District National Park covers tidal waters off the West Cumbria Coast between Drigg and Silecroft and also at the Kent Estuary crossing to near the shoreline at Arnside, following administrative boundaries, so it is not unusual at all.