Interpretation Proposals for Potential Visitor Hubs
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Interpretation proposals for potential visitor hubs Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park Interpretation Proposals For Potential Visitor Hubs 1 Contents Introduction 3 Hub Sites 7 • Huttoft Car Terrace 7 Process/Audience 4 • Anderby Creek Cloud Bar 11 Contexts/Overall Themes 5 • Sandilands Promenade 14 • Farmer Brown’s Ice Cream Parlour & Tearoom 17 Overall Approach 6 • Local Businesses 20 Appendices 22 Interpretation Proposals For Potential Visitor Hubs 2 Introduction The Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park (LCCP) is an area the delivery of a programme of events to encourage • Huttoft Car Terrace of coastal fields and marshes lying between Sandilands, visitors and local residents to discover, explore and • Anderby Creek Cloud Bar Huttoft and Chapel St Leonards. It covers approximately find out more about the LCCP. • Sandilands Promenade 8Km of coastline and up to 35 square kilometres of coastal • Farmer Brown’s Ice Cream Parlour – developed jointly hinterland. The country park is a Lincolnshire County Council An Interpretation Plan for the LCCP in 2011 recommended with LCGM Partnership project that will provide high quality facilities for visitors and developing a series of visitor hubs that would fulfil the enhanced protection for habitats and wildlife. It will also following objectives for interpretation: It also presents options for interpretation materials that can provide accessible and natural green space for local people be used by local businesses in the area. and visitors to enjoy. • Build public recognition of the LCCP • Celebrate the special qualities of the landscape, The country park is being developed by a partnership of wildlife, culture and communities of the LCCP and the organisations that include Lincolnshire County Council wider Lincolnshire Coast (LCC), East Lindsey District Council (ELDC), the Lincolnshire • Cater for a range of interests and experiences Wildlife Trust (LWT) and the Environment Agency (EA). The • Develop, as far as possible, by or with local people partnership is aiming to create a mixture of habitats in the park, including open water, damp grassland and reed beds, The contract should also recognise that the LCGM Partnership together with refurbished car parks and circular walks. It also is developing its own visitor interpretive hubs which overlap works closely with a related project, the Lincolnshire Coastal at Anderby. Grazing Marshes Partnership (LCGM). Over the past two years infrastructure improvements to the Country Park area have This report was commissioned to identify proposals for included: interpretation at these hubs, to introduce visitors to the LCCP. The proposals should reflect the themes developed in the • Refurbishment of three of the five LCC owned coastal Interpretation Plan and also involve developing new themes car parks at each location where appropriate. The report presents the • Purchase of strategically significant areas of land results of this commission. It includes interpretive themes • Installation of welcome panels at five car parks, and content, design and media, and costs for installation, publication of a visitor guide and website along with at four hubs: Interpretation Proposals For Potential Visitor Hubs 3 Process Audiences The LCCP Interpretation Plan is the formative document for We had previously prepared a development plan for the this contract. The plan’s themes recognise the wildness of the LCCP’s North Sea Observatory where we had considered coast, its fragility and vulnerability and the importance of the audiences for the Observatory and the Country Park. habitats for sustaining a high diversity of wildlife. The plan We believe the audiences for the interpretation hub sites are provides a critical framework for the project which could be similar to those for the Observatory. We have adapted the list applied to each site. to be more appropriate for the wider LCCP area. We consider the existing and potential audiences, therefore, to be: We visited each of the four sites to assess their physical resources, habitats, visitor use, existing interpretation, • Local residents who come to enjoy the Country Park and potential for application as a visitor hub. We were and the beach accompanied by officers from LCC and at Farmer Brown’s • Local residents who walk on the beach, often with we met representatives from the farm and from the LCGM their dogs Partnership. At each site we considered the key resources • Local residents who park in the car terrace to enjoy that could be interpreted and the range of stories that could the view be told. We then discussed opportunities for delivery of • Holiday-makers, particularly families, visiting the area, interpretation through panels, sculptures and other means. spending time on the beach and the Country Park and enjoying informal recreation Following these site visits the project team considered the • Fishermen who fish from the beach options and we present our recommendations below. • Birdwatchers, attracted by the spring and autumn migrations. Interpretation Proposals For Potential Visitor Hubs 4 Contexts Overall themes The main contexts within which this report is based include: It is worth transcribing the themes from the LCCP Interpretation Plan as guidance for the development of themes at each of The LCCP Interpretation Plan (2011) provides the the four hub sites. These themes are: interpretive background to the LCCP and presents overall themes for the area. Theme 1. These communities have traditionally looked to the sea The Lincolnshire County Council Strategic Business and the marshes for their livelihoods and survival Plan for the LCCP (2009-2012) proposed the approach for developing the Country Park and interpretation through an Theme 2. environmental visitor or heritage centre and a number of Communities along the coast live with vulnerability, smaller, associated satellite centres. The plan expresses the especially at times of war and of natural stress desire to develop visitor facilities as part of a broader strategy to support economic development in rural communities. Theme 3. The power and wildness and changing moods of the sea The North Sea Observatory Interpretation Report (2012) fascinates and inspires us provided a framework for interpretation in the proposed North Sea Observatory, which would become the main visitor Theme 4. facility for the Country Park. The hub sites would have a close This is ‘Big Sky’ country where wind and sky link land interpretive connection with this central facility. and sea. Birds are an important part of this landscape, particularly in winter Theme 5. This is a wild coast where wildlife thrives. The sea, the dunes and the restored coastal marshes give people a chance to enjoy this wildlife Interpretation Proposals For Potential Visitor Hubs 5 Overall approach The brief asks for an overall design style which can be applied to each location incorporating LCCP branding. This overall approach would be expressed in the interpretive materials at each site and in waymarkers and signposts between each site. The use of materials colours and typefaces will be in character with LCCP design guidelines. Delivery of the overall approach ITEMS DELIVERY COST PER HUB 1. Overall Design Overall design concept for the LCCP hubs. Branding style for the hubs, and for the interpretive items provided at each hub – sample design provided. 2. Welcome A welcome to each hub as a ‘hub’ for the LCCP rather LCCP logo or symbol to be incorporated into a panel or other interpretive object at than just one of the many sites you can experience in each hub site. the LCCP. 3. Orientation Better orientation around the LCCP. 1. A series of waymarkers and signposts from each hub and at critical points around the LCCP, for walkers, drivers and cyclists. 2. A design and approach to maps of the LCCP to be displayed at each hub for orientation. Interpretation Proposals For Potential Visitor Hubs 6 Hub sites Huttoft Car Terrace To the right of the approach road to the terrace, just beneath Themes the flood bank, there is a disused boat shed with a toilet block The car terrace is an important visitor site on the Lincolnshire behind. The County Council owns the land on which both Themes were developed for the North Sea Observatory coast. It is one of the few places on the coast where cars can buildings stand, currently leasing the boat shed to Huttoft (NSO), which was originally planned for this site. These were be parked on the beach side of the flood bank. Many people Boat Club. East Lindsey District Council maintains the toilets. wide ranging for the breadth of interests at the NSO. Themes use the terrace for sitting in their cars and watching the sea. It The boat shed provides an opportunity for re-use as a visitor, for the car terrace should be more focused to include: is also very easy to walk dogs, carry fishing gear to the sea and interpretation, education of volunteer centre. Alternatively if walk along the beach from the car park. It is therefore an ideal the whole building is not to be used, the walls / fencing could 1. Nature place to find out more about the coast and the Country Park be used for interpretation, particularly if a viewing area over There is a surprising diversity of life at the boundary between and to understand more about their features and interests. Huttoft Marsh is created. sea and land including marine, sand dunes and freshwater marsh, although some of the wildlife is seasonal and may not The terrace is a flat car park with a brick-built entrance hut There is a proposal by Lincolnshire County Council’s Economic be seen at all times. formerly used to take entrance charges, but now boarded up. Regeneration Service to install a sculpture – called ‘Salt Licks’ The car park has the capacity for 100 vehicles and can be full – at the southern end of the car park. Any interpretation 2. Migration at peak times. Although no overnight camping is allowed, developed as a result of this plan should take account of This is the first sight of land for birds heading south and east, campers frequently stay in the car park overnight.