South West Coast Path National Trail

Local Trail Partnership

Delivery Framework 2014/15

Version 1.0, March 2014

This document sets out how the South West Coast Path Trail Partnership will manage and monitor the South West Coast Path National Trail (SWCP). It has been produced as part of the new management arrangements for National Trails as recommended by Natural England in its New Deal for National Trails[1].

  1. The Local Trail Partnership

The Local Trail Partnershipsfor each National Trail bring together those organisations that are responsible for providing Trails and those who benefit from them. Their role is to take collective responsibility for providing a high quality trail as defined in the Quality Standards (see Annex 1). The main responsibilities of the Trail Partnerships are to:

  • provide a high quality trail
  • develop trails to their full potential
  • proactively promote Trails as part of the National Trails family
  • make the best use of available resources

Due to the size and complexity of managing the SWCP, and the large number of organisations and groups with an interest in its management, the SWCP Trail partnership consists of 4 component parts.

These are:

  • SWCP Regional Stakeholder Group: Sets strategic direction, approves the Delivery Framework and helps secure resources.
  • Delivery Management Group: Manages the Coast Path route and infrastructure to a high standard, with delegated (by the Regional Stakeholder Group) executive powers for operational issues.
  • Local Stakeholder Groups / Meetings: These will bring together a range of organisations and individuals with an interest in the SWCP to discuss local projects, issues, priorities and opportunities, that can be either be delivered locally or incorporated into regional SWCP work programmes
  • SWCP Team: Is the representative agent and lead contact for the SWCP Trail partnership. It coordinates Trail management and promotion, and develops strategic projects or acts as the catalyst to do so. Devon County Council host the SWCP Team on behalf of the Trail Partnership and as employers provide line management, office, HR & IT support and guidance.

The key individuals within the Trail partnership are:

  • National Trail Officer: As manager of the SWCP Team, the Trail Officer is the prime point of contact for the partnership, provides the secretariat for the meetings, and technical advice.
  • SWCP Regional Stakeholder Chair: Provides overall leadership and acts as an independent figurehead and spokesperson for the Trail partnership. They will also provide guidance to the National Trail Officer.

Further details of these groups, their remits and how they interact can be found in Annex 2: SWCP Management Structure and Process.

  1. Collaboration and sharing best practice

Although the SWCP Trail partnership is an independent entity, it operates as part of the wider National Trail family, and so will continue to promote and collaborate with the other National Trails. The SWCPNational Trail Officer will attend National Trail Officers meetings whenever possible, and contribute to strategic matters.

The SWCPTrail Partnership is also committed to sharing best practice, with other National Trails and beyond. For instance the system for enabling volunteers to use smart phones and tablets to monitor trail condition and report problems, will be developed so that if possible it can be easily adapted for use on other Trails.

  1. Budget management
  2. CoreNE funding

The National Trail review requires each National Trail Partnership to either have a budget management system in place and/or receive NE grant as a single sum through a lead agent.

The SWCP Delivery Group has considered both options and favours a budget management system process where each spring the Trail Partnership, through the SWCP Team and the Annual Delivery Framework recommends how the available grant from NE is allocated to each of the 6 Highway Authorities[2]. If NE is satisfied with the recommended split and the Delivery Framework, it then offers grants to each of the 6 Highway Authorities. This grant will be matched to a minimum level of 3:1 with local funding (i.e. for every £3 Natural Englandprovides, the Trail partnership will contribute at least £1 of match).

As under current arrangements, the SWCP Team will collate evidence against performance standards for the entire Trail and these will form evidence to support each Authority’s end of year grant claim. Further details of this monitoring process are outlined in the next section.

If this monitoring and benchmarking indicates that one or more of the delivery organisations is under-performing then the Trail Partnership will produce an action plan to resolve the issue, and if this is not implemented or fails to remedy the problem, NE may withhold payment of grant.

  1. Capital funding

The current cost of repairing the backlog of damage to the Coast Path caused by the extreme weather of the previous 18 months exceeds the annual maintenance budget.

In addition, as outlined in the SWCP Development Plan, the Partnership aspires to build on the success of the Unlocking our Coastal Heritage Project to further increase the significant environmental, social, and economic benefits that the SWCP generates.

To fund the repairs and improvement work the SWCP Trail Partnership will be seeking additional external funding from a variety of sources, including the Coastal Communities Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund, and the Local Enterprise Partnerships Structural and Investment Framework (SIF) Strategies. Inaddition non-exchequer match funding will be sought from the National Trust, and from the public and businesses through fundraising activity led by the SWCP Association.

  1. Delivery Framework Review

This Framework will be reviewed annually by the SWCP Team, with revisions being developed as a result of feedback from users, funders, the Delivery Group, and the Local Stakeholder Group. The updated Framework will then be presented to the Regional Stakeholder Group, and if endorsed it will accompany the annual maintenance grant application to Natural England and be used to support other funding applications.

  1. 2014-15 SWCP Priority areas of work

The long-term aspiration of the partnership is to deliver the following vision:

‘The South West Coast Path National Trail to remain the UK’s favourite

walk, ranked as one the world’s greatest walks, and making the coast

of the South West the UK’s best year-round walking destination’.

The projects that are needed to achieve this are outlined in the SWCP Development Plan which forms the second part of the Unlocking our Coastal Heritage project report, and will take a minimum of 3 to 5 years to deliver, and additional funding. The priority work areas the Partnership needs to undertake during 2014-15 to make this a reality are:

  1. Ongoing maintenance

The most important part of the programme is to ensure the SWCP continues to be well maintained, by not becoming overgrown, being clearly waymarked, having a good surface, and easy to use, attractive infrastructure. This work is undertaken by Exmoor National Park Authority, Devon County Council, Cornwall Council, Plymouth City Council, Torbay Coast & Countryside Trust, Dorset County Council and the National Trust. There has been c. 30% reduction in SWCP maintenance funding since 2010, and whilst the delivery partners are committed to minimise the impact that this has on users of the path through efficiency savings, there is concern that a back log of repairs will build up, and standards will steadily decline.The SWCP Association (a charity representing users) recognises the challenges the delivery partners face and as a result is rapidly evolving to undertake more fundraising and increase volunteer input.

  1. Repairing storm damage

The record breaking rainfall in 2012, along with the storms of early 2014, have caused an unprecedented amount of damage to the Coast Path, with numerous sections needing to be relocated or diverted inland due to cliff falls and flood damage. This deters users, and so has a significant impact on local businesses, such as pubs, cafes and accommodation providers, and is damaging to the reputation of the SWCP as a world class route. During 2013-14, additional funding was provided by the Highway Authorities, Natural England, the SWCP Association and others, to repair some of the damage caused in the winter of 2012-13. However some sections remain diverted inland, and with new closures and diversions resulting from last winter the back-log of work is immense. As the amount of damage now exceeds the annual SWCP maintenance budget, this work will not be undertakenunless additional funding can be secured. To this end it is planned to seek capital funding from the Coastal Communities Fund and other sources, and the SWCP Association will be embarking on a fundraising campaign.

  1. Strengthening links with local communities and businesses through the SWCP Association

The Unlocking our Coastal Heritage project demonstrated the willingness of the public and businesses to support the SWCP financially and with their time. To build on this momentum, the SWCP Association has recently recruited a Business Development Manager (funded by the SWCPA, the 6 Highway Authorities and the National Trust) to continue the fundraising work (see Strand 8 of the Development Plan for more details). It is anticipated that this will generate 'clean' match funding that can be used to help secure capital funds.

Alongside the fundraising work, the SWCP Association plans to develop a more active volunteer base. In a recent survey of its members, 10% of respondents said they would like to give their time. In addition a number of corporate supporters have requested opportunities for staff to volunteer their time as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme. With support from the SWCPDelivery organisations, the Association aims to create a sustainable and professional volunteering programme (see Strand 9 of the Development Plan).

Amongst the new volunteering opportunities being created by the SWCP Association is 'Local Path rep'. These will provide additional capacity to path managers by regularly walking their local stretch of the path, help identify where work is needed, and will alert path managers of any new issues.

Alongside this, the development of new Local Stakeholder groups will enable more people and businesses to be involved in caring for the SWCP, and help prioritise where work is most needed.

To help enable the SWCP Association to grow in this way, there will be increased collaboration with the SWCP Team.

  1. Developing a new path monitoring system.

Between 2000 and 2012 the condition of the path was monitored by the SWCP Team as part of a rolling 3-year programme. During this time the proportion of infrastructure and signage fully meeting National Trail Quality Standards steadily increased. However due to a lack of capacity within the SWCP Team and the survey data no longer being used to calculate the cost of maintenance funding this survey work has lapsed. During 2013-14 the National Trail Officer has investigated with the Highway Authorities the potential of using data they collect as part of their Public Right Of Way management. Unfortunately there are issues with this data, as it is not available in a consistent format, and does not measure against the NTQS in a consistent way, and so will not provide a robust benchmark for future monitoring. Although 2013-14 has been a challenging year for the teams who manage the path in dealing with the storm damage, with funding through the Unlocking our Coastal Heritage project and other sources (most notably money raised from businesses and individuals through the Great South West Walk) over 150 path improvement projects have been completed, and so the overall quality of the path is considered to remain high. This is endorsed by the path once again being voted as 'Best British Walking Route' by readers of the Rambler's Walk magazine.

A priority for 2014-15 is to create a more robust and independent system for monitoring future path condition. It is planned to achieve by the SWCP Team working closely with the SWCP Association, and path managers to develop a new survey methodology based on smartphone / tablet technology to create an online database of infrastructure and path issues that can be assessed and updated by path managers, SWCPA volunteers and the SWCP Team. In conjunction with the proposals to recruit between 50 & 100 new SWCPA path reps, who will undertake the survey, this aims to create a system that will enable all 630 miles to be surveyed at least annually.

  1. Submit capital funding bids to deliver the Development Plan

As can be seen by the success of the Unlocking our Coastal Heritage project, investment in the SWCP can generate huge environmental, social and economic benefits. To further build these benefits will require additional investmentas outlined in the Development Plan. To secure this the SWCP Team, with help from the wider SWCP Trail Partnership will be developing project bids to be submitted to variety of funders such as the Coastal Communities Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund, and trying to ensure they are included in the Local Enterprise Partnerships' Structural and Investment Framework (SIF) Strategies. Inaddition non-exchequer match funding will be sought fromthe National Trust, and from the public and businesses throughfundraising activity led by the SWCP Association.

  1. Monitoring & Reporting

The SWCP Team will coordinate the monitoring of the SWCP against the following Key Indicators based on the National Trail Quality Standards:

Item / Target to be achieved by April 2014 / Comments
Path infrastructure / Increase in the % of furniture meeting NTQS since the previous survey. / Given the approx 30% reduction in maintenance funding since 2010, this will be challenging.
Waymarking / Increase in the % of waymarking meeting NTQS since the previous survey.
Trail condition / Reduction in the number and length of Coast Path temporarily diverted due to cliff falls. / A diversion is considered 'temporary' if it is considered a diverted route is not aligned in the best position. Achieving this will require the cooperation of affected landowners and additional funding.
Visitor satisfaction / Improved satisfaction of users against the 18 SWCP factors measured during the 2012 SW Coastal Visits Survey commissioned by the SWCP Team / Subject to funding we aim to repeat this survey in 2015.
Visitor satisfaction / SWCP winning another national award, or ranked by an internationalpublication as one of the world's best Trails. / 2011 & 2013 SWCP Voted Britain's Best Walking route by readers of Walk magazine (this wasn't held in 2012) . In 2012 it was voted best Coastal Path by Coast magazine.
Visitor satisfaction / Over 90% satisfaction level for users of the SWCP recorded on surveys undertaken by Destination Marketing Organisations / This is dependent on DMO's including a SWCP satisfaction question in their research
Informative website / 20% annual growth in website traffic / 2013 figures are 570,000 visits, 375,000 unique visitors and 2.1 million page views.
Benefit to the local economy / Minimum of 5% year on year growth in line with Visit England targets. / Measured by annual updating of SWCP economic research when GB Day Visit Survey data is released. 2012 figures are that 8.6 million tourism visits taken on SWCP, walkers spent £436 million and this supports 9,771 fte jobs.
Local engagement / Minimum of 50 additional volunteers recruited by the SWCPA / The majority of these will be 'local path reps'
Local engagement / 2014 Great South West Walk attracting 1000 walkers raising money towards path improvements / This is a series of walks being held over 9 days in September.
Local engagement / Minimum of 8 Local stakeholder meetings held to help identify and prioritise local issues. / The feedback from these meetings will help guide work programmes and priorities.
Local engagement / £100,000 donated by businesses and public towards SWCP path improvements / This work led by the SWCP with support from the SWCP Team and delivery partners.
Awareness of brand and degree of engagement / 20% increase in number of Twitter followers and Facebook Likes. / Currently 7,389 Twitter followers and 2913 Facebook likes.
Improvements in accessibility / Year on year reduction in the number of stiles on the route. / At the last survey there were 597 stiles on the SWCP (and 770 gates)

In addition the National Trail Officer will if requested contribute to the development of a monitoring framework and subsequent measuring of other Key Indicators.

1

Annex 1: National Trail Quality Standards

Management Principles / Experience
Enable as many people as possible to enjoy a wide variety of walking and riding experiences along National Trails and through the English landscape / Enhancement
Make constant improvement to the Trail and its associated routes. Contribute to the enhancement of the landscape, nature and historic features within the trail corridor. / Engagement
Build and sustain a community of interest in caring for the Trail and the landscape through which it passes. / Economy
Creates opportunities for local businesses to benefit from the use of Trails.
Quality Standards and Key Performance Indicators / Continuous, long distance routes that can be completed as a journey or in stages.
Easily accessible routes. Routes matched to terrain and landscape.
KI: visitor satisfaction (PP/TP)
Connection of the trail with the landscape, nature and history.
Friendly website with accurate and up to date information to help with planning and providing feedback.
**KPI: informative website** (PP/TP)
Good range of accommodation in type and price.
Route design and development of associated routes is responsive to changes in use and to new uses.
KI: level and type use of the trail (TP)
KI: awareness of brand and degree of engagement (NE) / Development of the Trail that enhances experiences and ensures condition of route matches with types and levels of use.
A high quality of path infrastructure including:
  • Structures are always safe, comfortable, easy and convenient to use.
  • Consistent high quality design, style and use of materials to suit the character of the local landscape with historical features maintained where possible.
  • Route is easy to follow with consistent, accurate, unobtrusive way marking and destination signage.
  • Surfaces in good condition and appropriate to the geology and soils over which the trail passes.
  • Readily passable routes free from undergrowth and overhanging vegetation.
  • Safe road and rail crossings.
**KPI: trail condition** (TP)
Presumption of routes being traffic free.
Supporting local services (e.g. ferry crossings, transport links, taps) are available and information is up to date and accurate.
Conservation measures within the trail corridor that protect and/or improve habitats or historic features.
KI: quality of the trail corridor (NE)
Variety of high quality short and circular walks and rides
KI: improvements in accessibility (TP) / Consistently high quality of delivery up and down the trail through collaboration between local delivery partners.
**KPI: effective partnerships** (TP)
Land managers/ owners that host the route consider it to be well managed.
KI: land manager satisfaction with management of the route (TP?)
Sense of local pride and ownership achieved through local community participation and connections.
Trail partnership has involvement of users and local community
A range of opportunities for people to get involved with trail management
Active and thriving user association /friends group for the trail.
KI: level and type of local engagement/ voluntary participation (TP) / Encourages use of local contractors and materials.
Easy to find out about and access a range of relevant local businesses and facilities.
Local businesses consider the trail to be well managed and cite its presence as beneficial to their business.
KI: service providers satisfaction with the management of the route (TP)
Diverse and exciting programme of initiatives as Trail is seen as an attractive prospect for investment.
KI: benefit to the local economy (TP and others)

1