Access Outdoors

Simon Ovenden (Landscape Evaluation)

Through working on a project for the Sensory Trust with residents of the village of Unstone, North Derbyshire, I have come to focus on the wider issues of increasing people’s access to and the accessibility of the countryside.

There are three ways in the UK in which the countryside is made accessible: National Parks, Country Parks and public rights of way. National Parks have always faced the dichotomy of facilitating accessibility whilst managing the impact of visitor numbers. In contrast, Country Parks are areas free from the uniqueness that brings National Park status and so face fewer barriers when trying to provide accessible infrastructure. However, Country Parks can lack the landscape features that make National Parks so desirable as places to visit. Alternatively, creating accessible corridors in the countryside provides an interesting third-way approach where introducing infrastructure and facilities faces less opposition than in National Parks yet gives people access to a more dramatic and engaging outdoor environment than that offered by Country Parks.

There is a growing need to create large spaces and routes of open space that are accessible in order to fulfil the growing demand of many disabled people to engage in active outdoor pursuits - to exercise, to keep fit, to participate in sport or to train. This is disparate to the perception that disabled people only engage with outdoor space by strolling, sitting or through other leisurely activities.

National Parks, while also large outdoor spaces, face significant management problems due to issues of sensitivity and special character when trying to incorporate accessible infrastructure. As highlighted by the National Parks Conference '03, Buxton; it is difficulty to strike a balance between making themselves accessible to as many people as possible and reducing the adverse effects of visitor numbers.

Country Parks are acknowledged as acting as buffers between urban populations and National Parks because of their location and ease to access, relieving National Parks from more intensive use. Alternatively, Country Parks are not the sensitive or unique areas that National Parks are. As such, Country Parks face fewer barriers to creating facilities and infrastructure to increase their accessibility for as many people as possible.

Sheffield, South Yorkshire, has the 4th largest population of English cities.
Despite 1/4 of the City falling within the Peak District National Park, when looking for accessible outdoor space many people find Country Parks the only option. The City also has a large Country Park in Rother Valley. Country Parks provide large areas of outdoor green-space that through their location and modern facilities and infrastructure ensure their accessibility. It is because of this that Country Parks are attractive to many disabled people.

Top End Handcycle

G.B. Wheelchair Basketball player and Mum, Jill Fox uses Rother Valley Country Park in Sheffield to cycle with her Top End -handcycle as part of her training schedule for the G.B. Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team.

“I love my bike,” says Jill, "I cycle for both cross training but also for enjoyment and as an activity that I can do on a equal level with my daughter Bethany"

“I encourage the children I mind to come with me, I also go with a friend either with her jogging or on her bike.”

Jill cycles around 6 times a week at Rother Valley and also on the Trans Pennine Trail but doesn't use the Peak District. The main problem Jill says she faces isn't necessarily lack of good pathways and facilities, but lack of knowledge that any exist. This highlights a main issue the Sensory Trust has continued to address: that of pre-visitor information. The decision to go outdoors is made indoors.

The Sensory Trust has embarked upon a joint project with Derbyshire County Council to develop a circular trail around the village of Unstone in North Derbyshire. The location is significant in that a branch of the Trans-Pennine trail, linking Sheffield with Chesterfield passes close by.

The Unstone Village Group hope that this project will mark the first step of a local initiative that will help to revitalise the fortunes of many ex-coal mining settlements. Lessons learned at Unstone will be exported to neighbouring villages. The project is based on a non-vehicle transport network of paths that has the potential to link into the larger urban areas of Sheffield and Chesterfield. We hope that this will increase people’s access to and the accessibility of the countryside. This is supported by Sensory Trust work with Sheffield City Council and Chesterfield Council’s Greenways initiative.

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