REPORT STRUCTURE

Part A Principles for Access
Outlines the principles for access and summarises the supporting findings and recommendations given in Part B. Download as PDF (33k)

Part B Managing for Access
Describes the important attributes of access and its impacts on and integration with other National Trust purposes, and makes recommendations for the future. Download as PDF (232k)

Part C Recreational Activities: Guiding Principles, Practices and Impacts
Covers eighteen individual activities in detail. Read overview online or download as PDF (313k)

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SUMMARY

The National Trust was established for the permanent preservation of its properties, land of great beauty, historic interest and nature conservation value. Its main duty is to ensure that landscape, archaeology and wildlife are conserved ‘for ever’. Providing access to this land, however, is a prime purpose of the Trust. Land is held for the ‘benefit of the nation’ and one of the main ways of providing benefit is to allow access.

Around 50 million visits are made annually to Trust countryside; its coast, woodlands, parks, downlands, heaths, rivers, lakes, moor and mountains - throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The number of visitors, including walkers, cyclists, canoeists, rock climbers and horse riders, grew dramatically in the 1970s and ‘80s. Membership of rambling, yachting, canoeing and horse riding societies, for example, increased five-fold in those decades.

Will numbers continue to grow? Are these visitors damaging the very countryside they come to enjoy? What impacts do different activities have? Can the National Trust preserve countryside and wildlife, and still welcome millions of visitors? Most access is free; should it continue to be free? Or should people now expect to pay?

The National Trust examined these questions during a recent Access Review. Many other issues were raised in the course of the Review, such as traffic, dogs, quiet versus noisy enjoyment, visitors’ needs and expectations, conflicting activities and training group use.

The main findings have been published in a report Open Countryside (Report of the Access Review Working Party, The National Trust, 1995). This establishes the principles, set out below, which will guide the Trust’s management of access into the twenty-first century. It describes the impacts of access, and ways in which it can be integrated with other objectives such as nature conservation. It considers visitors in general, and eighteen recreational activities - from angling to off road vehicles - in detail. This is a summary of that report.

PRINCIPLES FOR ACCESS

Supply and Demand for Access
Virtually every Trust property provides some access. The most popular activities are walking, dog-walking, field studies (both organised and informal), horse-riding and cycling. Over 40 activities take place in total, and some properties cater for more than 20. Providing access costs the Trust at least £6 million each year: over 450 staff spend much of their time on access management.

Despite this, there is a demonstrable requirement for more access. There are demands for more access for walkers, cyclists, horse riders, canoeists, rock climbers, training groups and school parties. There is demand for sitting and playing places, especially close to towns and villages. There are pressures for more access in the uplands and the lowlands, on land and on water.

Conflicting needs
But there are more complex and conflicting needs than just ‘more access’. Many visitors come to the countryside in cars, and require easy and convenient car parking. On the other hand, the amount of traffic in rural areas is a matter of national concern. Many people wish to protect countryside tourist sites from excessive traffic, provided alternatives are available.

There are needs for more information, helpful signs, easy access for people of all ages and abilities, tea-rooms and lavatories. There are needs for more access for those using four wheel drive vehicles, jet skis and for training groups. On the other hand, great importance is attached to remoteness, tranquillity, peace and quiet; areas which are hard to find and have a feeling of wilderness about them.

There are needs for more places for dogs to run free. But there are problems of dog fouling, stock-worrying and calls for stricter controls.

Activities can conflict with each other: cyclists and horses; riders and walkers; jet skiers and swimmers; canoeists and anglers. In places, each activity is demanding its own ‘territory’.

Most importantly, access can damage the very environment on which it depends. Deeply scarred upland footpaths provide an obvious example. There are many more serious, but less obvious, impacts.

Remoteness and tranquillity; freedom and fun
Many people think that peace and quiet, and unobtrusive activities, are particularly appropriate to National Trust land. Therefore these qualities will be safeguarded with particular care. Plans will identify ‘Remote Areas’ (which may well include areas close to towns) where access will not be positively encouraged, nor promoted. They will in no way be closed to the public, but people will be encouraged to find them for themselves.

Virtually all the activities which take place at present can be continued and encouraged somewhere on Trust land. Even the noisier activities which are not, in fact, as damaging as might be expected, can continue, as long as use is legitimate and controlled. Free-ranging access, too, much enjoyed by walkers, can be promoted in places. The key is careful planning: which needs can best be met, and where? Pressures to accommodate too many activities on one property will be resisted strongly.

Impacts on the environment and conservation
Access is now regarded as a land-use in its own right. In many ways it is a force for good in the countryside. It provides stimulus for environmental enhancement, support for countryside issues and helps narrow the gap between ‘town and country’.

However, although not as damaging as some other land uses, access can and does damage the environment, the landscape, nature conservation and archaeology. Such impacts include pollution from traffic and visitor facilities, disturbance to birds, erosion of archaeological sites and fragile vegetation, accidental fire and the death of farm stock from dog-worrying. Damage can be caused by work needed to make sites safe for the public, and by path construction.

All activities can cause damage, including quiet activities such as walking, fishing, caving, rock climbing and golf. The impacts of each activity, based on current knowledge, have been summarised in ‘Open Countryside’. Further research is needed to provide more detail, and to link impacts and visitor numbers more closely.

Reconciling conflicts
Most conflict between access and conservation, and between different forms of access, can be reconciled by planning and management. Codes of Conduct, Liaison Groups, permits, licences, Access Agreements, zoning by time or space, promotion strategies, effective information and especially the presence of countryside staff, are all successful management mechanisms.

However, if such management is not practicable or adequate, access will be restricted on sensitive sites, as it is at present. Restrictions will usually be seasonal, for example during bird-nesting, or temporary, for a recovery period. Only a very few sites are closed altogether for conservation reasons. But if use continues to increase and if practicalities dictate, the Trust may have to be prepared to close more sites for recovery in the future. If serious damage is suspected, the precautionary principle will operate; in other words recreational activity may have to be banned or further restricted. This will only be invoked with sound reason and after discussion with interested parties.

Planning cannot be carried out in isolation. The Trust will continue and extend its planning and consultation with neighbours, tenants, adjoining land owners, user groups, local people and other access providers and managers. This will ensure that access is planned within and beyond National Trust boundaries.

More access or more conservation?
Given the need to plan carefully, and to put priority emphasis on long-term preservation, the Trust hopes to provide more access on its land. Opportunities will be sought to provide more Rights of Way and linkages in the Rights of Way network; more routes for walkers, horse-riders and cyclists; promotion of cycling as a means of transport; more access for canoeists; more provision for field studies through the Countryside Education Programme, more access on lowland farmland and more information on where to go and what to do. Informal access on foot will continue to be free, but there may be charges for facilities, events, and commercial uses.

On the other hand, after such planning and assessment, there may need to be a variety of restrictions and controls. The implications of footpath repair and of visitor facilities will be examined more critically; some paths may be relocated to allow better conservation management, and some properties will remain hard to get to and hard to find. Certain activities, too, require more emphasis on conservation and, in some cases, closer control. These include fishing, caving, shooting, bait digging and golf course management. The Trust is particularly concerned to encourage more responsibility among dog owners, and institute dog zoning, which will include some areas where there are no dogs or dogs on leads only.

Access-related countryside traffic is a major concern. There are ways of reducing it, for example through local rather than national marketing, car parking disincentives, park-and-ride schemes and better provision for cyclists. Various initiatives are already under way, and more will be done to address this problem. The environmental impacts of visitor facilities, such as use of water, materials and energy, too, will be assessed and mitigated.

Access and the Trust in 2000
The National Trust is in a unique position to address these important issues - the demand for more access, the conflicting needs and the impacts. Ownership of 235,000 hectares of very varied countryside, including much (approximately 15%) which is in heavily populated areas close to major towns, gives the Trust scope to meet and reconcile many access needs. It also confers on the Trust a national responsibility as one of the main access-providers in the UK.

The rapid increase in the number of visitors seen in the 1970s and ‘80s is now levelling off. However, participation in some activities continues to rise, numbers of active middle-aged will increase, as will numbers of young children. As part of sustainable management the needs of the future must be assessed and predicted. Access must provide for people’s needs, but must not erode local distinctiveness, nor disturb ‘spirit of place’.

To summarise, the key applications of the Principles for Access are as follows:

• The Trust will continue to provide access to its land, provide for many activities and provide for more access.
• Environmental issues will be addressed and some activities will be reviewed and controlled.
• Effective planning is essential, extending beyond Trust boundaries, anticipating future requirements and assessing people’s needs.

The report Open Countryside was prepared for consideration by the Trust’s committees and staff.

The full paper is available as 3 downloadable PDF documents. Click on the options above right to download.