Memorandum submitted by the Outdoor Industries
Association (V10)
1. EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
The OIA is the major trade body representing
business involved in the field of outdoor recreation.
Outdoor recreation plays a major role in rural
tourism. The Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001 showed clearly that
rural tourism is now a more significant contributor to the rural
economy and rural way of life than agriculture and any other rural
based industry.
The OIA believes that outdoor recreation needs
to be encouraged further by Government as it has such a major
role to play in many aspects of delivering beneficial policy from
fighting obesity, personal development and social inclusion.
DEFRA and particularly the Countryside Agency
have been very successful in their current structure in improving
rights of way and access to the countryside. Further work and
investment can be made to improve the quality of this access and
increase the network, particularly of cycling infrastructure.
Sustainable development is a must for the rural
economy and the OIA believes that DEFRA needs to acknowledge more
openly the extent of the role of outdoor recreation. The strategy
needs to ensure that as much attention and resource is applied
to outdoor recreation as to agriculture. DEFRA also needs to ensure
that planning process does constrain the development of outdoor
recreation facilities that are sympathetic to the rural environment
or the change of status of some buildings and land from agricultural
to commercial when they are for outdoor recreation usage.
We believe that the new integrated agency needs
to ensure the needs of the rural community are not lost to those
of urban regeneration as the new regional approach takes shape.
Likewise DEFRA and its agencies need to work more closely with
other Government departments to ensure that there is sufficient
affordable housing and transport links and services in rural towns
in order that rural business have a sufficient pool of potential
employees who can affordably travel to and from places of work.
The OIA would be concerned if the new structure
in anyway denigrated what currently appears to be a well balanced
approach to landscape protection.
2. OUTDOOR RECREATION
IN GREAT
BRITAIN
2.1 Outdoor Industries Association Background
The Outdoor Industries Association (OIA) is
the lead trade body for manufacturers and retailers of clothing,
equipment and services for the outdoor leisure pursuits market
in Britain and Ireland.
The association's mission is continually to
develop its role as the leading trade body for manufacturers,
suppliers and retailers of outdoor leisure clothing and equipment
by:
— energetically promote participation
in outdoor leisure activities;
— deliver relevant and cost-effective
services to members; and
— provide a voice for the outdoor sector
ensuring an effective interface between industry, consumers and
government.
The OIA represents companies across the UK and
the Republic of Ireland providing clothing, equipment and services
for a tremendous range of leisure and recreational activities
including camping, canoeing, caravanning, climbing, cycling, skiing,
trekking, walking and related pursuits.
The OIA has almost 350 member companies who
between them have an estimated revenue turnover exceeding £1
billion per annum.
The largest members turn over in excess of £100
million per year, while an average OIA member has a turnover in
the region of £500,000 to £1 million per annum.
2.2 Outdoor Recreation
As an industry, outdoor recreation is very dependant
on the levels of active pursuits carried out across the country.
By their very nature, these pursuits are often based in rural
areas, the Lake District, Peak District and Dales being obvious
areas of high intensity outdoor activity. However, outdoor recreation
is not restricted to mountain climbing and hill walking, but includes
gentler forms of rambling and walking as well as cycling (on and
off road) and canoeing as a few examples. These pursuits are carried
out in every corner of the country on footpaths, bridleways and
other public access to the countryside from Lands End to John
O'Groats. Various studies have been undertaken to ascertain the
value of this activity to the rural economy but the OIA has no
knowledge of any that have confidently indicated it accurately.
What is now well understood and appreciated is that rural tourism,
of which outdoor recreation is a major driver, is a greater contributor
than agriculture itself. This was clearly demonstrated by the
foot and mouth outbreak of 2001, where the impact on visitor related
businesses was severe.
3. THE GOVERNMENTS
RURAL STRATEGY
3.1 Countryside Recreation and Use
The OIA has worked for many years with DEFRA
and its predecessor departments. The OIA has welcomed many of
the initiatives that DEFRA and particularly the Countryside Agency
has introduced. The CROW Act that is now being enabled is perhaps
one of the most significant opportunities for growing the outdoor
recreation market and the OIA believes that the Countryside Agency,
with its Welsh counterpart, has worked extremely hard to deliver
this project of some complexity and sensitivity. In addition the
Countryside Agency has grasped many other issues on access such
as the Discovering Lost Ways programme aiming to sort out the
complex rights of way legislation and its manifest levels of access
and rights. This is a programme long overdue and its completion
will give visitors to the countryside a greater number of definitive
and unambiguous rights of access, rather than the confusing muddle
of various levels of access paths.
These are two examples of where the OIA believes
that the current arrangements and formation of the Countryside
Agency and DEFRA have worked well. The OIA welcomes the proposals
that a stronger voice will be created to champion further access
right development but we would not like to see the knowledge and
enthusiasm of the Countryside Agency staff nor the vision of DEFRA
on this important issue reduced or dispersed due to the proposed
re-organisation.
The Rural Strategy suggests that the new agency
will have a strong voice in regional decision making and this
is welcomed. The OIA has responded to the new TourismSE strategy
on developing tourism in Southern England and we would like to
see greater links between such departments and the new agency.
We are somewhat disappointed that these are not more explicit
in DEFRA's strategy. The OIA believes that the countryside deserves
as much investment from the tourism budgets as the city and urban
areas receive and would like to see the new agency, in its Regional
Development service capacity championing this area much more strongly.
The OIA would also like DEFRA to more tacitly
appreciate the role of outdoor recreation in driving the rural
economy and to directly allocate funding streams that support
this activity when they consider the streamlining described in
the Strategy.
The new integrated agency needs to consider
how it can support local government in improving the condition
of rights of way, expanding the network and increasing the number
of cycle routes and safe cycling facilities, both for leisure
and commuting purposes within the countryside and within rural
towns and villages.
3.2 Sustainable Development
As already mentioned, outdoor recreation is
a major contributor to the rural economy and yet the OIA's reading
of the Rural Strategy suggests that this is barely recognised
in terms of sustainable development. The OIA believes that outdoor
recreation could have an even greater role to play if the planning
and funding processes were structured in such a way as to allow
this. There are many farmers and existing providers of facilities
to outdoor participants who wish to expand, convert disused buildings
into camping barns etc but are prevented by regulation. The OIA
would urge DEFRA when constituting the new agency that these matters
are given greater priority for resolution.
A growing issue for a number of OIA businesses
is the recruitment of staff. A growing amount of the rural housing
stock is now second homes and with infrequent and expensive transport
in the countryside the availability and mobility of the workforce
pool may become a limiting factor in opening up new outdoor shops
or locating outdoor manufacturing businesses. DEFRA and its new
integrated agency must take this into account when developing
their structures and ensure that they work closely with the Department
for Transport and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on these
matters.
3.3 Landscape Protection
The OIA as a trade body is not expert in the
details of landscape protection, but we recognise that there are
many competing factors that need to be balanced, space for development,
placing of wind farms and other power generation—and the
irony here that much sustainable energy sources need to be located
in the countryside. From the point of encouraging and supporting
outdoor recreation we cannot see that the existing arrangement
of DEFRA and its agencies has been detrimental to our industry.
The OIA would wish to ensure that the new integrated agency and
the New Countryside Agency continued to find that balance between
development and dynamic change within the rural environment without
damaging the very things, tranquillity, beauty diverse habitats
and ecologies that the outdoor recreation participant comes to
see.
17 September 2004
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