Countryside Recreation, Access and Land Use Planning

About this book

In this book, Nigel Curry gives a full critical appraisal of policies and plans for countryside recreation, and proposes, in the context of rural restructuring as a whole, a range of new directions for policy that will better serve the needs of both the public and the countryside to the turn of the century. Countryside Recreation, Access and Land Use Planning has been structured around five main propositions: that the fragmented nature of the way in which agencies responsible for rural leisure are organised has inhibited the development of coherent policies and plans; that there has been a confusion between the responsibilities of the public sector and those of the market place and provision has been piecemeal and unco-ordinated as a result; that policies and plans have, in the main, ignored the social composition of recreation participation and have failed to take people's preferences into account; that policy and planning have been concerned with the rights of the landowner and a fear of a recreation explosion rather than the development of recreation opportunities and as such, have been unduly restrictive, and that policies and plans for recreation and access have been given an unjustifiably low priority in pressures for change in the countryside, particularly in relation to those in the conservation interest.

Contents

Preface. Acknowledgements. The historical context of countryside recreation and access: The nineteenth century: increasing preferences for countryside recreation and reductions in supply. Wordsworth and Olmstead: should the countryside be for all? Pressure groups, parliamentary conflict and social class. The access issue in government: a distinction between recreation and access policies. Recreation and access priorities in public policy. The 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. Reconstruction, designation and affluence: a fourth wave. The White Paper 'Leisure in the Countryside': countryside recreation should be for all. The 1968 Countryside Act. The 1970s and 1980s: tinkering with recreation and access supply. Recreation management and interpretation. Recreation in the urban fringe. Organizational overlap. From uneasy steps in the social provision to the market place. The importance of recreation, access and tourism in government. The provision of countryside recreation and access. An uneasy co-exitence of public, private and voluntary provision. Public and voluntary recreation facilities. Access and public rights of way. Access agreements, orders, compulsory purchase and tax. Common land. Common land: a case study in access conflict. Public provision and market provision at the cusp. Private provision. Where do people go? Participation in recreation and access. Problems of data collection. Recreation trends and influences over participation. Recreation activities and patterns. Attitudes towards recreation and access. The social structure of participation. Social policies for countryside recreation and access. Social of market policies? Social needs or market demands? Control, facilitation or promotion? Preferences or constraints? Social policies: recreation transport. Social policies: the 'free access' criterion. The limitations of social policies for countryside recreation. Government advice for rural leisure land-use planning. The jurisdiction of land-use planning for rural leisure. The nature of government advice. Limitations in regtional sport and recreation strategies. Variability in development plans. The enforceability of advisory statements. A changing policy emphasis over time. Lack of consistency in policy guidance. The adoption of policy guidance in the land-use planning process. Recreation and access in structure plans and countryside strategies. The strategic planning context. Underlying assumptions in policy formulation. Structure plans: policies for land uses and facilities. Structure plans: other planning issues. Countryside strategies: form and purpose. Countryside strategies: scope and context. Countryside recreation and strategic planning. Recreation and the environment. Recreation and conservation priorities in public policy. Recreation and conservation priorities in land-use planning and management. Recreation damage to the count

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