Today's Thinking for Tomorrow's Countryside Recent advances in countryside recreation management Proceedings of the Countryside Recreation Annual Conference 1995 organised by the Countryside Recreation Network Edited by Catherine Etchell, CRN Manager 1 Published by CRN Countryside Recreation Network © 1996 CRN Countryside Recreation Network ISBN 0 948 502 30 4 Recycled paper Copies cost £15 and are available from: Countryside Recreation Network Dept. of City & Regional Planning UWCC PO Box 906 Cardiff CF13YN Tel./Fax 01222 874970 e mail [email protected] December 1996 British Waterways COUNTRYSIDE COMMISSION CYNGOR COUNTRYSIDE CEFN GWLAD ^COUNCIL Countryside Recreation CYMRU Network DEPAXJM EW or A CKICVL1UKE FOU NOKTHER.V IfEUND A UK-wide Network, CRN gives easy access Department to information and people concerned with of the countryside and related recreation matters. Environment The Network helps the work of agencies and individuals by: 1. identifying and helping to ENGLISH meet the needs of CRN members NATURE for advice, information and research; 2. promoting co-operation between ^ Forestry Commission member agencies in formulating and executing research on countryside and related recreation issues; Northern Ireland 3. encouraging and assisting the Tourist Board dissemination of the results of countryside research and best practice on the ground. CRN is committed to exchanging and spreading information to develop best policy SCOTTISH and practice in countryside recreation. NATURAL HERITAGE For further information on CRN workshops, or to receive our free newsletter, please contact: Scottish CRN Manager TOUflliT BOARD Countryside Recreation Network Department of City and Regional Planning University of Wales College of Cardiff PO Box 906 Cardiff CF1 3 YN SCOTTISH s port rs COUNCIL SPORTS council BWRDD CROESO CYMRU WALES TOURIST BOARD Contents Welcome and Introduction Richard Broadhurst Chair, Countryside Recreation Network Today's Thinking 5 Ian Mercer Chief Executive, Countryside Council for Wales .... Tomorrow's Countryside 10 Terry Robinson Head of Recreation & Access, Countryside-Commission Landscapes for Tomorrow 20 Chris Wood Information Services Officer, Yorkshire Dales National Park Achieving Sustain ability in the Countryside 25 Roger Levett & Joan Bennett Consultants, CAG New Roles for Rangers? 31 Yvonne Hosker Trainer, Training and Advice Service Brave New World - Or What? 33 Robin Grove-White Director, Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University Workshops 39 Funding Alternatives to the Private Car 40 David Holding Senior Lecturer, Newcastle Business School, University of Northumbria Brian Eaton Coventry University 'Travelling Light" 50 Andy Gale Countryside Commission Sustrans and the National Cycle Network 55 Philip Insall Press & Information Officer, Sustrans Greenways: Environmentally Sensitive Recreational Travel 58 Rob Owen Senior European & Sponsorship Officer, Countryside Council for Wales Recommissioning the *MV Swift' 63 Brian Eaton Senior Lecturer, Coventry Business School Hand-held Computers and Terminals for Asset Management 72 Glenn Millar British Watenvays Anne Glover Assistant, Pennine Way Co-ordination Project Exploring the Internet 79 Nicky Ferguson Director, Social Science Information Gateway, University of Bristol Access Management for the Millennium 87 Tony Philpin Co-ordinator, Pennine Way Co-ordination Project Contingent Valuation: The Economic Benefits of Countryside Improvements 98 Mike Christie Research Assistant, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute Managing Change in Countryside Recreation 104 Mel Jones & Mike Wild, Principal Lecturers, Sheffield Hallam University Visitors and Residents in the Erne Lakeland, Northern Ireland 114 Kimberley Dyer Research Assistant, University of Ulster Sustainable Access - The Tir Cymen Model 120 Martyn Evans Countryside Council for Wales Tourism, Environment and the Shannon-Erne Waterway 123 Claire Guyer (Lecturer) & John Pollard (Senior Lecturer) University of Ulster Getaway Girls and Wild Outdoor Women 135 Michael Collins Senior Lecturer, Loughborough University Community Forests 142 Gary Charlton Recreation Officer, Great North Forest Climbing and Conservation 151 Jeremy Barlow Access and Conservation Officer, British Mountaineering Council Postscript 153 Richard Broadhurst Chair, Countryside Recreation Network & Senior Adviser, Recreaton, Access and Community, Forestry Commission List of Participants 155 Programme 158 Welcome & Introduction Richard Broadhurst Chair, Countryside Recreation Network & Senior Adviser, Recreation, Access and Community, Forestry Commission Welcome...to the Network! The Countryside Recreation Network is a UK wide Network of the principal agencies (31 at the last count) involved in countryside and related recreation matters. We take a very broad view of what constitutes countryside — 'environment' really; and a correspondingly wide definition of recreation. What is sheer fun and pleasure to some will be education and learning to others, and of course it can be all these things. As a Network we are committed to exchanging and spreading information to develop best policy and practice in countryside recreation. This conference plays a part in spreading the word. We have certainly amassed a good deal of the latest and brightest thinking in relation to countryside and related recreation matters. We will spread this thinking through this meeting and through the publication of the conference report. Working through meetings - of CRN agency reps, open workshops and conferences - is a major way of encouraging the spread and the birth of good ideas. We augment this way of working by exchanging information through publications - conference and workshop reports, the UK Day Visits Survey report, Research Directory and of course the Countryside Recreation Network News. In keeping with the conference theme we are developing use of electronic means of communication, including the establishment of home pages on the Internet [http://sosig.ac.uk/crn/]. We have to continually reassess what the major issues are and how our tomorrows are likely to present challenges for us to overcome and opportunities for us to seize. Armed with the thinking reflected between these covers we should be better prepared. But to keep in date (and to keep everybody else up to date), keep networking and making use of CRN; whether through publications - paper or electronic, and through meetings, workshops and conferences or by lifting the phone. 4 Today's Thinking Ian Mercer Chief Executive Countryside Council for Wales Three sets of influences seem to me to be most important in conditioning today's thinking about tomorrow's countryside: • past experience and traditions, • popular culture (as expressed in socio-political life), • a few visionaries/space pundits. Past Experience and Tradition British people's attitudes to the countryside are fundamental, conservative and steeped in tradition. This suggests that any enduring changes will be slow to develop. We have a very nostalgic attitude to our countryside and frequently use shock tactics to defend 'romantic' images of it (CF Peter Kennard's "The Haywain", Constable (1821), Cruise Missiles USA (1983)). Our most 'prized' countryside today is a product of mid-eighteenth century thinking about what was sublime, beautiful and picturesque in landscape. Shusterman, in his essay on 18th century aesthetics, describes that thinking as "the collective tyranny of educated burghers" (Shusterman, 1993). The burghers' motives were to make money. They did so by first buying into and then marketing a product "A Dream of England" — a countryside managed in a particular way for the sensory pleasure of tourists. That dream captured the popular imagination. Since the second world war gaining access to our countryside has become a reality for more and more people. However, for most of us any ambition to own a 'place in the country' might be satisfied by a time-share (at best) or a miniature estate on Snowdon for £20! The celebration of the centenary of the National Trust this year is testament to the skill of the 'traditionalists' in sustaining popular interest in a particular type of countryside. Although well organised politically, do the 'traditionalists' command a clout which is disproportionate to their numbers? Carolyn Harrison in her typology of countryside users has called this group the "aesthetes'. They go back a long way. Their thinking is enshrined in legislation which conditions the way the countryside is planned and managed. Legal rights (e.g. PRoW) and customs will be staunchly defended by this group. This makes it difficult to instigate change quickly. However it has also ensured a continuum of tradition and custom, which for many, epitomises the English countryside. Popular Culture Popular culture is characteristically short-lived yet with mass appeal. Public interest in the countryside in recent years has been popularised through TV and, to a lesser extent, radio. Wildlife programmes such as Life on Earth have been among the most popular television series of the last decade making household names of their 'star' presenters, e.g. David Bellamy and David Attenborough. In recent years the focus of 'popular' interest in environmental matters has shifted away from the countryside (locally) to a greater concern and interest in global issues such as nuclear waste, the ozone layer and global warming. A survey of politician's views published in Country Life (25.V.95) revealed that conventional wisdom