Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
policy framework within public service provision in leisure in the UK and other
countries. Aitchison (1997) reviewed the impact of such changes, acknowledging the
effect on access for women and other target groups.
Research has examined the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT)
which has been seen as naive and ill thought out. Coalter (1998) pointed to the emphasis
on economy and financial efficiency while neglecting non-financial performance
measures such as the contribution of recreational outputs to a community's quality of life.
Even simple notions of recreational supply (reviewed in Chapter 3) related to equity of
access, and community needs do not appear to be met in many cases of CCT contracts.
Simplistic measures of expressed demand have also not been evaluated systematically.
Thus political and ideological changes in government can have a major bearing on the
nature and approach to recreation resource management.
Both Chubb and Chubb (1981) and Patmore (1983) provided excellent appraisals of
recreational behaviour, the resource requirements and the complex interplay of forces
shaping recreational resource management from a geographical standpoint (Masser
1966-7). What emerged from the wide range of geographical contributions to
recreational resource analysis during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s was that the
fundamental starting point for any discussion is demand. Reiterating the discussion in
Chapter 2, data from site surveys and overall levels of participation in time and space as a
dynamic process provide the baseline information for resource management. It is then a
question of establishing the impact of specific activities.
Understanding the extent of impacts such as the effect on natural resources, social and
psychological impacts arising from overcrowding, traffic congestion, aesthetic intrusions
and conflict between recreational activities illustrate how the resource is being impacted
upon (Spink 1994). Even at the present time, over three decades since Burton's (1974)
innovative study of carrying capacity of Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, UK, its
methodological and conceptual value remains high despite innovations in mapping and
analysis with GIS. Indeed, the interest in pursuing critical spatial concepts such as
overcrowding and tolerance to visitor numbers has seen only a growing interest by
geographers since the 1970s, especially in the context of rural recreation. In fact
G.M.Robinson (1999:270) argued that 'During the last three decades, work by
geographers on the management of rural recreation and tourism has grown from a trickle
to form a highly varied and substantial literature'. One notable example is O'Riordan and
Paget's (1978) analysis of anglers and boaters where spatial tools were devised to achieve
multiple use of the resource.
Probably one of the greatest challenges facing recreational resource planners in a non-
urban context is the impact of the motor car in the post-war period. Many novel studies in
the 1960s and 1970s (e.g. J.M.Hall 1972; Wall 1971, 1972) highlighted both the greater
spatial reach and flexibility of access to recreational sites afforded by the car. Even so,
the car is not a surrogate for individual mobility and recreational resource use, although
as Page (1998,1999) highlighted, the car is one of the major issues facing the recreational
planner, especially in national parks (Eaton and Holding 1996). Within an urban context,
Glyptis (1989a) also observed that the car was highly correlated with the use of sports
facilities in the 1970s by middle-class males contributing to inequalities in access.
Mobility and access to transport does limit certain social groups from enjoying the wider
continuum of outdoor recreation opportunities, particularly those living in deprived inner-
