Improving the access conditions
will increase the number of
visitors and their satisfaction

Access has a fundamental impact on the future success of parks and gardens. It dictates the ease with which visitors, staff and volunteers can travel to the park or garden.

For an increasing number of people a visit to a park or garden is a "great day out". Problems arise from the fact that the majority of parks and gardens are located in the outskirts of the major cities or in the rural landscape. Getting there very often requires the use of a car as public transport services are poor or even not existing.

Access also dictates the ease with which those with limited mobility or pushchairs can make their way around within the garden. Full accessibility to all parks or each section of a park and garden has not yet been realized. The topography, small or uneven paths and the demands of heritage protection are some of the reasons that require innovative thoughts and measures in order to improve the accessibility for persons with special needs. The project will explore a number of ways across the partner regions to deliver better access.

As a first step toward such improvements the partnership has carried out baseline reviews on the transport and access conditions in their five anchor gardens (Hestercombe Gardens, Painshill Park, Tatton Park, Schloss Dyck and Parc Oriental). Based on these reviews a transnational working group has agreed on joint priorities for next activities, has identified most promising sites or regions to address the problems as well as best methods of sharing the work and of including best practice and expertise.

Further activities within this action will address the improvement of public transport facilities, will create measures to enhance the accessibility within sites and the virtual access to restricted areas, will explore options of "slow traffic" concepts (in cooperation with action "Inter-Regional Gateways") and will evaluate - linked to Action 5 "Interpretation" - how new concepts of signage could help to make a garden fully accessible.

For first results of this action please refer to "Reports".

Main responsibility: Surrey County Council
Major supporting partners: CRT Pays de la Loire, Somerset County Council

Contact Person: David Greenwood
david.greenwood@surreycc.gov.uk