Countryside Exchange – Brecks, England

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Exchange Team would like to thank the following individuals and organisations for their support and commitment to the 1997 Brecks Exchange:

The Local Organising Committee:
Councillor Bill Bishop, Brandon Parish/Forest Heath District/Suffolk County Council
Sandy Greig, Forest Enterprise
Simon Hooton, Brecks Countryside Project
Councillor Ray Key, Mayor of Thetford/Breckland District Council
Graham King, Norfolk County Council
Bill Nickson, FRCA/Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Julia Masson, Breckland Council
Sue Scott, Forest Heath District Council

The Brecks Countryside Project:
Neil Jarvis, Assistant Countryside Project Officer
Charlotte Collins, Voluntary Field Officer

As well as:
Peter Hooton and Alfreda Thistlethwaite, Suffolk County Council
Anne Brenchley and Stephen Rothera, English Nature
The Rural Development Commission
Kevin Peters, Historical Thomas Paine Hotel
Central Trains
Simon Hodgson and Sandy Greig, National Steering Group for the Countryside Exchange
The Councillors and Staff of the Thetford Town Council

Table of Contents

1. Objectives of the Exchange

The Countryside Exchange was established to bring together countryside professionals from both sides of the Atlantic to work on common issues and problems and to share experience and expertise. The following objectives are set for the exchange:

To encourage professionals and volunteers concerned with the well-being of the countryside.
To address specific problems faced by rural communities and provide new ideas and solutions by concentrating a variety of new expertise on case study areas involving local people.
To develop participants’ understanding and skill in influencing and motivating people.
To assist with the practical implementation of the ideas and recommendations presented.

1.1 Local Community Objectives

In 1997, an exchange team was invited to the Brecks case study area by the Local Organising Committee to offer the local community new observations and recommendations on managing change in the Brecks countryside and encouraging local sustainable development. The team was asked to direct themselves to the following objectives and issues:

What are the unique features of the Brecks that could be promoted for the benefit of local communities, strengthening local identity?
How should we incorporate the promotion of sustainable development?
How do we retain unique qualities and encourage local pride in and care for the local environment?
How can the Brecks’ special qualities make a greater economic contribution to the local community, including land managers?

The Local Organising Committee identified the following skills and expertise as important to managing the changing rural environment in the Brecks:

Promotion and Marketing
Green Tourism Development
Interpretation and Education
Community Involvement
Rural Land Use – agriculture, forestry, natural and landscape conservation

2. Introduction

The Brecks area of Norfolk and Suffolk Counties has long been recognised for its interesting and unusual landscape and its wildlife characteristics. The unique features of the Brecks were considered by the exchange team to be the following:

The physical environment, in particular the dry climate, chalk geology and sandy soils.
The presence of heathland, wetland, woodland habitats of national and international importance in their own right or due to the species which they support.
A working landscape, which has seen rapid and recent changes, now characterised by contrasting and intimate scenery of open heath vistas, abrupt vertical pine shelter belts, large-scale forestry, and now areas of intensive agriculture supported by irrigation. At times the Brecks is a spiritual and sensual place where the presence of man has left, and continues to leave, a rich legacy of ancient and contemporary history.
A distinctive building style closely associated by way of materials with the land and its ownership. A built heritage which often demonstrates a long continuity of care by its guardians in both town and country.

Observations

The Brecks’ heathlands and wetlands are of national and international ecological importance, as evidenced by its statutory designations. However, its ecology and culture are not widely understood because the heath landscape is not one considered to be typically attractive.

The Brecks has suffered historically from marginality.

There has been an extraordinary pace of change in the Brecks that has taken place within living memory. These changes have included the new influences of forestry, the military, agricultural irrigation, and urban relocation.

Pride of place is diverse – people love the Brecks for different reasons. Others are indifferent. This fragmentation makes it difficult to appreciate the Brecks and to form a strong identity around it.

There is a sense that it’s not on the map, which further weakens local identity and makes it difficult to present the area.

The nature of land ownership and occupation has been instrumental both in preserving the special features of the Brecks and in bringing about change.

There are unusual restrictions (relative to the rest of Great Britain) on public access to large and important portions of the landscape and its cultural heritage. Access is only improving in the forest.

Local representatives of public agencies recognise the need to co-operate and work in partnership in order to preserve and enhance the Brecks countryside.

People new to the area with urban outlooks populate the villages and towns of the Brecks. This has led to a lack of connection between the communities and the countryside.

Each local group and agency has its own particular perceptions and interests. There is little connection nor common focus either on the Breck’s identity or on its sense of place. This has made it difficult to achieve an integrated planning strategy for the area.

There is confusion and duplication between visitor destinations, centres, and recreation attractions for limited numbers of tourists. There is generally an information and brochure overload on non-complementary, and potentially competitive, Brecks’ visitor sites.

Local people believe that the increased levels of water abstraction (extraction) are lowering the water table and this might have possible implications for their livelihood. They are dismayed that this driest area of England is exporting water. However the long-term effects of these practices are still unknown.

Recent light industrial and intensive agricultural development, although appreciated for its employment opportunities, can present a problem to the visual elements of the Brecks’ landscape and image.

There are a plethora of governmental agencies and boundaries. This creates confusion, a lack of clear responsibility, and blockages to action.

Despite the adoption of a natural area approach, natural habitats are managed by administrative boundaries rather than on a landscape basis. There are too many statutory conservation designations for special natural areas, and this creates confusion (SSSI, SAC, and SPA).

Information on the natural history and landscape of the Brecks makes little connection with the area’s social and cultural history or to the contribution of the people who have lived here.

There is little understanding of the concept and value of biodiversity outside the scientific community.

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3. Key Issues and Recommendations

3.1 Community Governance – Key Issues

As a landscape unit, the Brecks countryside is criss-crossed by a wide variety of administrative and partnership boundaries. There is genuine concern for the Brecks by all of the public officials and community leaders involved in its management, although the area is often only one part of their responsibilities. The team was impressed by the progress that has been made toward sustainable management of the Brecks countryside and the diversity of plans that have been created for its protection and enhancement. However, the team also felt that the area suffers from too many individual agendas that often lack co-ordination and an agreed upon plan of action. The Brecks is often only one geographic unit incorporated into wider plans for individual counties and districts, or it ‘falls between the cracks’ of local planning efforts. The team sensed a degree of local frustration in finding a set of goals specifically identified and agreed upon for the Brecks.

This was particularly a concern in the area of environmental protection. Environmental management for the Brecks is mainly left to the agencies and is currently being carried out on the basis of administrative boundaries rather than in terms of habitat and ecosystem. The result is that despite an impressive range of environmental programs and projects, the countryside and its rare species still remain at risk. The work that is carried out suffers from the lack of co-ordination that inevitably leads to frustration and disappointment.

The team also felt that while the special qualities of the Brecks were clearly recognised by scientists and experts working in the field and that they have carried the work of environmental management well down the road, there is little community understanding or input into this management process. The various agencies currently have processes for informing communities about management planning and the projects being carried out in the Brecks, but need to devise mechanisms to involve them in actually developing those projects. A good model for this would be Barnham Cross Common Management Group.

Recommendations

The complexity and diversity of the public boundaries and partnerships now requires the development of a CONTRACT, OR STRATEGIC PLAN, specifically for the Brecks that is owned by the community and all the partners concerned with the area’s future. The Brecks Contract should integrate the environmental, economic and cultural heritage goals defined and decided upon by the community as a whole. It should include an action plan that outlines specific steps that will be taken toward these goals. Lead responsibility for each action should be assigned to the local agencies and community associations which, working together, are most capable of carrying them out. Local responsibility should be grasped by community groups. We believe this will result in sustainable management action. Using the 1992 Norfolk and Suffolk Brecks Study (reviewed in 1995) as the base, the partners should assess the current Brecks-based partnerships with a view toward determining their role in protecting the Brecks and meeting the community’s needs.This assessment should include cost-benefit analysis of the progress toward the goals that were established in the 1992 study as well as evaluation of the contribution and commitment by the various partners.Based on this assessment, the partners in the new Brecks Contract should update the 1992 strategy with a view toward making it more focused and toward making the best use of existing partner resources. Areas where there may be duplication of effort should be identified and the action plan be made as efficient as possible.
A process should be created to discuss and decide upon clear priorities for the Brecks. These should be linked to an agreed action plan. There should be focused programmes and projects that various partners, working together, can devote their time and energy to in a more directed manner. One way might be to form time-limited task groups that are action oriented.
The partners should make every effort to include a wider community base in designing the new Brecks Contract and in planning the future of the Brecks. The community as a whole should be involved not only in the ‘softer’ issues of creating an identity for the area, but in the difficult and serious processes of creating environmental policies and deciding upon economic development and land use management strategies. We suggest this might be achieved by convening a Brecks Forum so that local groups and associations could not only learn about and become involved in decisions and actions being taken about their local environment, but could also contribute their own ideas to the process. The Brecks Forum could meet twice a year and include parish councils, volunteer groups, community associations, local businesses, schools and neighbours.This ensures that local people affected by significant development or environmental proposals are involved at the very early stages of the planning process. They will be able to contribute to that process and take ownership of it.Local representatives should be included in any task groups established whenever possible and appropriate.
As the community becomes more involved, the expertise and good practice they have learned in managing the Brecks should be shared with other communities. This expands general skill development in the Brecks community (e.g. Barnham Cross Commons).
Due to the complexity of the work currently being carried out in the Brecks and the community involvement, a lead person or group should be appointed to see that the objectives and the action plan of the Brecks Contract are carried out. This should not absolve the Brecks Contract partners from their responsibilities.
A review of all grant and incentive schemes affecting the Brecks should be carried out and a more co-ordinated approach adopted to promoting them (e.g. District Council schemes for local community action). This could be the subject of a Brecks Forum meeting or a local seminar. This approach will enable more people to be involved and increase the likelihood of successful bids.
Local businesses and developers should be encouraged to contribute towards a local environmental fund for projects in the vicinity of their land and premises. In addition, where there are significant development projects with social and economic benefit and environmental consequences that cannot be mitigated on site, opportunities should be provided for ‘off site’ compensation (e.g. a fund for heathland regeneration). This practice is occurring successfully in Ontario and is accepted as legitimate by the public.

3.2 Pride of Place in the Brecks – Key Issues

It is clear to the team that many members of the community have pride in the Brecks, but love it for different reasons. The team found that people responded to a variety of associations when asked what the Brecks meant to them. There was no clear consensus about the ‘unique features’ of the Brecks that could strengthen and unify local identity. In part the strongly divergent population that now lives in the area causes this. Many people are new to the area and have less knowledge of or associations with the place in which they live. Those who have lived here most or all of their lives have a longer, richer sense of identity based on their memories and experience.

Some people in the Brecks’ community, especially the young, identify with the forest they have grown up with, while the older members of the community identify with the heathland they remember. People new to the area bring an urban outlook to the Brecks as a place of recreation, while the local community retains its rural heritage.

There is a deep urban-rural divide in the Brecks. The towns and villages in the area now service a largely commuter and retirement population that have few connections with the older town centres or with the countryside around them. There is limited public transportation and few thoroughfares through the Brecks. This has led to an over-dependence on the car, which is itself unsustainable, and this lack of choice can lead to isolation. The agricultural community and farms in the Brecks have few links with the area’s urban life.

This fragmentation makes it difficult to come together as a community, to appreciate the landscape, and to form a strong identity around it. There is a sense that the Brecks is not on the map, not clearly known and understood, which further weakens local identity and makes it hard to present the area positively to visitors. The heath is especially highly valued by conservationists and managed on a scientific basis. Although appropriate, this has created a perception of elitism and has isolated the heath reserves from the community.

Recommendations

The new Brecks Contract needs to identify a ‘spirit of place’ around which it can build and manage the area’s future. In doing this, it should begin from the standpoint that all of the groups, whether new or long-time locals, within the Brecks community are contributing to its culture and life. Just as the mosaic of its landscape has always been one of the Brecks’ unique features, the mosaic of people who have moulded that landscape has always been a unique and important characteristic of the area. All of them contribute to its ‘spirit of place’ and to building a future. Each group needs to learn what the other values.
The identity and community of the Brecks should be celebrated in a variety of ways in order to attract and involve the largest numbers within the community.The Brecks Contract should develop a graphic identity including a logo that would provide it with a powerful visual symbol of its community identity and which epitomises the Brecks setting. The community itself should be asked to contribute ideas. This identity should be threaded through all of the projects, activities and promotional material developed for the Brecks.Entry point highway signage should be created possibly with a ‘You Are Now In The Brecks’ message.
Festivals should be developed that celebrate the community and its landscape. For example, a ‘Festival of the Countryside’ or a ‘Celebration of Change’ could be organised. Historic anniversaries should be celebrated. Festivals should be created around village history.

Parish Maps projects should be created in the villages to strengthen community identity.
An interpretation of the Brecks should be created that integrates its landscape and wildlife, its history, and its cultural heritage. Perhaps an underlying interpretation theme could be related to change, or to ‘past, present, and future.’ Although the team was introduced to a great deal of information on the landscape and environment of the countryside, there was relatively little information on the people who lived in it and the culture that they created.A ‘Living History’ project should be created for the Brecks and be implemented by the community. It should collect and archive oral histories, recordings, songs and music, photographs, art and literature, artefacts from those who have lived in the Brecks. The project should represent various sectors of the population. For example:
- Families who were removed from the villages in the STANTA military facility in 1942.
- Families who arrived at the Brecks from London.
- Men and women who planted the first forests in the 1920s.
The Brecks Contract, in partnership with the Education Authority, should create a program of active environmental education for schools and for the Brecks community as a whole. It should combine various approaches appropriate for different age groups, key stages, and subject areas in the National Curriculum. It should focus on an interpretation of the Brecks that integrates its landscape, its history, and its cultural heritage.In speaking with teachers, it became clear that the rigors of the National Curriculum made it difficult for them to create a curriculum study program in local history and the environment. Teachers agreed, however, that if members of the local community provided such a curriculum for them, they would gladly integrate it into their curriculum schedule. This would provide a welcome opportunity to include teachers and local educators into the community planning process for the Brecks. Other possible programs include the following:
- An awareness-raising program for adults that builds on the techniques of initiatives such as the ‘Footsteps in the Sand’ programmme should be created.
- Field study packs that provide information on accommodation and other services available in the Brecks should be created.
- The establishment of a landscape study centre for schools should be investigated, possibly working in partnership with the Forestry Enterprise. This would co-ordinate with the Forestry Enterprise’s desire to expand the capacity of the High Lodge facility. A successful model can be found at Stackpole in South Wales, for schools with the National Trust.
Sustainable connections between the towns and villages of the Brecks should be created, and its urban network should be linked into the countryside.Cycle trails should be created that link the villages and towns of the Brecks. A map of the trails and signage for them should be created that interprets the village and town network.Local agricultural markets should be created in towns and villages. This would facilitate community interaction and attract visitors. These could be weekend markets that are set up in town centres. They could also co-ordinate with local festivals.
Web sites could be developed for villages and towns, which would help strengthen local identity and create links between communities.
Thetford should be promoted as the capital and strategic centre for the Brecks. The revitalisation of Thetford should be an important part of the Brecks Contract action plan. It should co-ordinate with the initiatives of the Thetford Partnership, and members of that Partnership should be involved members of the Brecks Contract team.

3.3 Locally-Owned Sustainable Land Management – Key Issues

It is recognised that the land in the Brecks has historically been marginal due to its geology, soils and rainfall. However after the First World War, the requirement for timber and improved agricultural production changed both land use and the landscape.

The heathlands are remnants of the ancient agricultural practice of land clearing, grazing by sheep, then abandonment. This has left the legacy of a unique vista landscape with important habitats for rare species. To maintain the heath in this form, sheep and cattle grazing is essential, as is evident at the STANTA military training ground. A tighter, more cropped environment is maintained through uncontrolled rabbit grazing.

However the existing Bio-diversity Action Plans meant to conserve these important heathland habitats and their species are little understood by the community and in particular by private landowners. There is a feeling that they are agency-owned and driven even though the implications of the proposed action (e.g. Heathland regeneration) are of wider community significance. The team believes there needs to be a positive community decision on how the heathland is managed. Without sustainable management, the heath will continuously be threatened.

Modern methods of arable farming appear at first inspection to be sustainable, with large farms maintaining their viability through economies of scale. Mixed rotational stock and arable farming also provide valuable local employment. They are sustainable within the context of the Common Agricultural Policy and currently require little financial support.

Large-scale horticultural farming is also extremely sophisticated. Its impact on the environment has been mitigated through Integrated Crop Management practices. However, horticultural marketing is desperately competitive with just a few national superstore buyers dictating uniformity of product, quality and price. The industry has also become dependent on irrigation, transforming Grade 4 land into Grade 1 land. Large capital investments in equipment, technology, boreholes or reservoirs are needed to compete.

In reality, horticulture suffers from boom-or-bust cycles that continually threaten its stability and profitability. Its long-term sustainability is in question, as it is extremely susceptible to the vagaries of the market. On the other hand, more traditional, less intensive methods of farming are even more threatened. Set-aside and ESA payments that encourage less intensive agriculture do not make it profitable and the financial incentives to farmers adopting this approach are insufficient.

The forest planted after the First World War now dominates the Brecks landscape with a mosaic of single age stands of just two types of conifer. It has however brought stability to the fragile soil, and wind blow has been substantially reduced. The forest is also now economically sustainable with healthy annual profits. The forest also provides work in the Brecks area. Operating at a profit has allowed more flexibility in the management of the forest, with more socially oriented initiatives now an important part of policy; this includes more public areas, more recreational activities, and an opening of the forest to planned diversity. The forest, however, restricts biodiversity due to the mono-cultural nature of the tree species. Heathland regeneration is thwarted when replanting occurs after felling.

Water is the essential commodity on which the livelihood of the Brecks depends. It appeared to the team that there was considerable uncertainty about water as a resource and the impact of its increasing abstraction. Some members of the farming community expressed concern about the continued supply of irrigation for crops. Ensuring a high water quality in an area of intensive agricultural production was also considered to be an issue. The team was unable to discuss water quality and supply with either Anglian Water or the Environment Agency, but there appeared to be considerable confusion about the facts and about water policy in general. Although public concern was evident, there seemed to be limited public pressure for a resolution to the problem.

Recommendations

Biodiversity Action Plans should be used as the foundation for developing, on a co-ordinated basis, greater community awareness and involvement.
More heathland should be regenerated in appropriate areas to create expansive vistas, a larger habitat bank, and to increase biodiversity.
Consideration should be given to purchasing land solely for heathland and giving it to a charitable trust to manage in perpetuity.
If the opportunity arises during relevant policy review processes, consideration should be given to strengthening the links between the set-aside scheme (if it remains) and the ESA scheme to allow land taken out of agricultural production to be reverted to heathland.
The future of the ESA program needs to be established. A policy should be devised which ensures that the link between ESA and the set-aside program remains a sustainable one, and that it can absorb changes both in financial support and agricultural policy.
Forest Enterprise should consider widening its aims still further toward providing appropriate heathland regeneration within its massive landholdings. This should be geared particularly to advice from English Nature, the Countryside Commission, and the community.

We suggest that the local community lobby those responsible for water management in the Brecks to make public, in a non-technical manner, their knowledge of and approach to conserving and distributing this important resource. The team feels it is important that local people clearly understand and be involved in the process of developing an integrated water management strategy, which ensures the fair and equitable allocation of the available supply among competing users. This could be achieved by ensuring that the process of preparing Local Action Plans for water catchments is based on a public understanding of the underlying situation in relation to water supply and is more community responsive than the present system.

3.4 Open Access to the Countryside – Key Issues

The Brecks is countryside of outstanding scientific and cultural value. It is a rich mosaic of landscapes that have been created over time by the people who have lived here. Yet because of the nature of land ownership, there are unusual restrictions on public access to large portions of the landscape and its cultural heritage. The fragmentation of identity in the Brecks is caused in part because people literally can not see and appreciate the countryside in which they live. Large areas remain in private estates, nature reserves are small tracts of land that cannot allow unrestricted public access, and public access to the STANTA military training facility is extremely restricted.

The restricted nature of the countryside is particularly critical with respect to the heaths. It appears to the team that the majority of the Brecks’ newer and younger residents have no knowledge of and no attachment to the heath as a unique landscape because they have never seen an extensive tract of heathland and thus have no understanding of its beauty. Because of increased access and the recreation opportunities it offers, Thetford Forest is the natural feature that many members of the community now most associate with the Brecks. Public access is a critical ingredient in raising community awareness about the historic Brecks landscape.

Recommendations

The Brecks Contract should place special emphasis on opening public access to the countryside. Public access should be negotiated with farmers and with the STANTA military facility. This access can come in the form of guided and controlled tours, of observation points, of special boundary trails.Environmentally Sensitive Areas and countryside stewardship schemes should always include carefully designated public access trails. The existing schemes provide for opportunities to gain access. This should be pursued where appropriate.
Negotiating permissive public access is an important mechanism for extending community involvement to include the most important landowners in the Brecks countryside. Representatives from the MOD, from English Nature and the FRCA (in relation to ESA’s) from Wildlife Trust and English Heritage, from large farms and estate owners, and from Forest Enterprise should be included in the strategic Brecks Contract.Both the MOD and estate owners can substantially benefit from allowing greater public access to their lands. By satisfying the public’s desire to ‘know what’s happening,’ large landowners can develop local community support for and pride in their management efforts.
The Brecks community should lobby for tax incentives for landowners who open up their farms and landholdings for public access.
The Brecks Contract should give high priority to developing permissive rights of way to connect existing areas of landscape interest and to create a more comprehensive network of open countryside across the Brecks. Different aspects of the landscape could be highlighted on different tours. Possible themed trails include; Warrens, Flint, Archaeology, Social History, and Forest History.Rights of way signing should be improved to invite people into the landscape.Maps for existing walks and trails should be created and promoted as ‘The Brecks’.
Management of the Brecks should move away from establishing disconnected nature reserves. It should move instead toward a comprehensive and expansive vision of open, connected landscapes in all their richness and variety – grass and heather heaths, forest, pingos and meres, rabbit warrens, pasture – open for everyone to see.
Further efforts should be made throughout the Brecks to interpret landscape for the public. Interpretation should explain what viewers are seeing, the process of change that is currently taking place in the landscape, how the area is being managed, and the future choices that are possible for the area. Efforts should be made to ensure that the interpretation includes aspects of social and economic history whenever possible and appropriate. It should stress the inter-connectedness and inter-relationship between the people and the land in which they live and work.
The Brecks Contract should investigate the idea of an ‘Adopt a Trail’ program for local businesses and associations. This would bring the private business and farming sector into the community management process and make them aware of local environmental issues.

3.5 Putting the Brecks on the Map – Key Issues

The team felt that local peoples’ ‘pride of place’ was strongly linked with the idea of ‘putting the Brecks on the map’. The Brecks is recognised by scientific experts as a significant place to visit, but non-experts also need to know about it and have the desire to come. At the same time local people need to identify with ‘the Brecks’ in order to assist in its presentation to the outside world.

The team does want to strongly counsel the Brecks community that tourism is not the sole answer to sustainable development. Tourism is only one element in a multi-faceted strategy to diversify and sustain economies in the countryside.

Tourism has the ability to create employment in the Brecks and provides the opportunity to further strengthen the economy. However the Brecks is not recognised regionally, nationally or internationally as a tourist destination. Although the Brecks already has numerous important attractions, the quality of the tourism product varies enormously.

There is a lack of concerted and combined marketing and promotion by agencies and local authorities. There is no clear tourism image presented to potential visitors to the Brecks. There is no clear structure or system of sites and attractions that will make the Brecks an area attractive for tourism. The quality of visitor attractions varies enormously. The team felt that there was too much information provided about the Brecks and that the messages were either unclear or inconsistent. The quality of the information also varied widely.

Recommendations

The tourism product of the Brecks is ‘countryside and heritage’ which is exactly what the existing visitor profile of Brecklands District (45+, some retired, ‘empty nesters’) is looking for. The product and the market are entirely compatible with the idea of sustainable, ‘green’ tourism. There needs to be stronger marketing and promotion to identify target groups. Strong clear common messages about the Brecks need to be communicated consistently. New markets should be explored and targeted; the North American market and the Dutch market particularly for cycling.
It is essential that a graphic identity, including a logo, be devised for The Brecks. The team recognises that this will not be an easy process, but suggests that the work of the artist with the Brecks Countryside Project be developed and built upon for this process. The local community should be asked to contribute to this process. The graphic identity should be used whenever possible on all material produced for the Brecks.
Through the mechanism of the new Brecks Contract, the partners should produce a Tourism and Interpretation Strategy which should include a co-ordinated promotional and marketing campaign as one of its key action items. The strategy should link with other initiatives such as the proposed Thetford Partnership Heritage Plan. The overall theme for interpretation in the Brecks should be ‘Change’. This will allow for the interpretation of all topics relevant to the Brecks. In addition, it will provide occasions to interpret ‘past, present, and future’.
The tourism strategy should facilitate an overall reduction in the amount of printed material and brochures. It should instead concentrate on creating high-quality, themed, interpretive and promotional material. The themes should be developed from both the Tourism and Interpretive Strategy in the Brecks Contract.
The partners to the Brecks Contract should consider the production of a ‘You Are In The Brecks’ folder. This could be used for a variety of purposes, but could take the form of a ‘Bedroom Browser’ folder available in all accommodation in the Brecks. It should include a map of the Brecks with attractions, sites and trails, maps of towns and villages. The team suggests that holiday accommodation guides produced by the counties and districts contain a specific section on the Brecks, highlighting its special qualities and using its graphic identity.
A Tourism Audit, including a thorough review of the sites and attractions located in the Brecks countryside, should be included as a key action in the new Brecks Contract. The strengths and weaknesses of each site should be carefully assessed. Priorities should be decided upon in terms of promotion, enhancement and investment for each site. This should be done with a view toward creating an integrated and complementary visitor experience in the Brecks. This type of co-ordination and prioritisation of site or attraction investment will make it easier to elicit co-operation from public agencies, to find funding for capital investment and operational costs, and to promote the Brecks as a tourist destination worth investing in by private companies.
The accommodation base in the Brecks, consisting mainly of bed and breakfasts, small hotels and camping/caravan sites is small, but there is a considerable potential for growth. The quality of accommodation varies and many need to be inspected and classified under the Tourist Boards scheme (shortly to be revised). New and existing accommodation should be encouraged to enter the classification scheme. Reduced advertising rates and the promise of co-ordinated and effective promotion could possibly tempt them. The team suggests that the relevant partners to the Brecks Contract seek to increase the accommodation base by offering financial incentives. A ‘Tourism Enterprise Grant Scheme’ (TES) should be considered which could access European funding through the East of England Tourist Board.
It is suggested that wherever possible accommodation and visitor attractions are made accessible for people with disabilities and that information regarding this is readily available. The designation of non-smoking rooms in hotels and non-smoking areas in dining rooms should be considered.
The team recommends that visitor centre planning and construction be addressed on a regional basis. The team is concerned about the large numbers of existing and planned visitor centres. Regional visitor centres are a more efficient and effective way to deliver services and information to visitors. This type of visitor centre allows for integrated and complementary information to be presented to tourists.
The team suggest that a coffee table publication on the Brecks with scenes of its landscape, ecology, and history be produced. It could be offered as a holiday and tourist gift idea in bookstores and shops throughout the area.
The development of speciality tours catering to small groups of guided tourists should be developed. Themes could include; history/archaeology of the Brecks, unique birds and plants of the Brecks, the history of forestry.
The partners to the Brecks Contract could encourage involvement by the local community in the promotion of the Brecks through a guided walks programme using community members themselves as expert guides. The Brecks Contract Partnership should develop Local Interpretive Plans involving local people to ascertain what it is they value and wish to interpret for visitors and other local people.
Further ideas to consider are: -
- Christian Heritage Trails of the Brecks; Architecture of the Brecks – these tours should be linked to other similar attractions and tours in East Anglia.
- Provide a source of information for visitors researching genealogy on location of historic cemeteries and birth/death records.
- Work to provide information on access to food and lodging from the Peddar’s Way National Trail. Explore feasibility of converting redundant farm structures to camping barns.
- Invite travel writers and owners of tour companies that cater to small groups to visit the area.
- Link the global sustainable issues at the proposed Ecotec Centre with the local Brecks sustainable issues.
- Develop a Networked TIC at Thetford.
- Capitalise on the proximity of the Sustrans National Cycle Network by linking into it and creating circular routes of it where possible.
- Produce a leaflet on the theme of ‘A Landscape within a Landscape’ for Center Parcs, to be placed in each cabin. This would highlight the differences between the Centre Parcs environment and that elsewhere in the Brecks without making value judgements. Centre Parcs have indicated that they would have no problem with this.

4. Conclusion

The exchange team would like to congratulate the Brecks community for its accomplishments and the considerable achievements that have been made to date. We believe that this progress is a firm foundation for the future. We hope that this report contributes to that endeavour. The team looks forward to hearing about future successes in community-based rural planning and management in the Brecks.

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