Recreation Management Plans
Managing a country park, nature reserve, woodland, coastal path, or private estate brings its own particular challenges. A Recreation Management Plan (or more commonly nowadays referred to as a Visitor Management Plan) is one of the most useful plans you can have in place, as it provides you with a clear, evidence-based framework for how recreational and visitor use will be managed across your site. A key objective is to ensure a balance among public use, environmental protection, and your operational needs and long-term objectives for the site. At Planning Solutions Consulting, we have been working with landowners, local authorities, and conservation organisations on visitor projects for over 20 years.
What is a Recreation Management Plan?
At its core, a Recreation Management Plan is a strategic document that outlines how a site will manage access, visitor use, and the natural environment over a defined period. It takes into account current conditions and pressures, establishes clear management objectives, and sets out a prioritised action plan with measurable outcomes. In practice, Recreation and Visitor Management Plans cover visitor flows and access routes, signage and interpretation, habitat and ecological sensitivity, maintenance, income generation, and stakeholder engagement.
Why your site needs a Recreation Management Plan
Across the UK, pressure on outdoor spaces, from woodlands to beaches and nature reserves, has been increasing. Increasing visitor numbers, a longer visitor season, growing awareness of Public Rights of Way, and rising demand for accessible outdoor experiences, in part driven by social media, can leave sites exposed to habitat degradation, visitor conflict, a decline in the quality of the visitor experience and potential reputational issues that can be very difficult to unpick. A Recreation Management Plan helps you get in front of those challenges rather than respond to them.
How we prepare a Recreation Management Plan
We adopt a collaborative approach that’s designed to produce Recreation and Visitor Management Plans people can use rather than documents that sit on a shelf. Our projects follow the same structured process:
Baseline site assessment. We start with an analysis of your site, identifying how it is currently being used, from marketing activities through to the sense of arrival, car parking, trails and paths, signage and interpretation, the condition of infrastructure, and any environmental sensitivities that need to be taken into account. Connectivity to other off-site paths and trails, and the availability of public transport are considered. This also includes, where possible, identifying visitor trends, dwell time, and reasons for visiting. It’s the foundation for everything that follows.
Stakeholder consultation. We talk to you and your team (including volunteers), as well as local communities, user groups, and, where relevant, statutory bodies. Understanding what matters to different people, what the existing constraints are, and where tensions lie is essential to producing an implementable Recreation Management Plan. Importantly, engagement helps to build up a bank of ‘goodwill’ among stakeholders.
Market trends. A Recreation Management Plan cannot be prepared in isolation; it is important to consider broader market trends that are affecting outdoor recreation. This can include reviewing the volume and value of tourism in the local area, as well as wider trends in health and wellbeing that help drive outdoor recreation and the broader economic context.
Case examples – benchmarking. A range of case examples are often analysed as part of preparing the plan. Identifying good practices and lessons learned from benchmarking will enable the project to benefit from these findings. This will provide stimulus for discussion, identify criticial success factors and inform the development of the Recreation and Visitor Management Plan.
Analysis and management themes. We bring the research together and begin identifying management themes for the action plan. These could include visitor flow and pressure points, habitat protection, signage and interpretation, training of staff and volunteers, maintenance priorities and income generation.
Recreation Management Action Plan. We prepare a structured action plan with prioritised actions, defined responsibilities, and timescales your team can realistically work to. The language is plain, and the format is straightforward. We prepare a draft of the Recreation Management Plan and submit it to you; following your feedback, we finalise it.
Recreation management plan FAQs
We set out a number of frequently asked questions about preparing a recreation management plan.
Each site we work at is different
No two sites are the same. A Recreation Management Plan for a working woodland crossed by public footpaths requires a fundamentally different approach to one for a coastal nature reserve. Our work spans an unusually wide range of site types, which means we bring genuine sector knowledge to a project.
In country parks and open spaces, we’ve worked with Hampshire County Council (Queen Elizabeth, River Hamble, Royal Victoria, Lepe and Staunton Country Parks), Northumberland National Park Authority (Walltown Country Park), Natural Resources Wales (Afan Forest Park), the National Trust (Freshwater West) and many others on everything from development opportunity assessments and visitor flow management to full visitor experience masterplans produced alongside visitor management plans
In the environmental sector, our clients have included the RSPB (St Aidan’s Nature Park), Natural England (Lincolnshire Coronation Coast National Nature Reserve and Shapwick Health NNR), Sussex Wildlife Trust (Rye Harbour Discovery Centre), and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust (Marches Mosses, which include Fenn’s, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserves and Wem Moss Nature).
In the heritage sector, our clients include Monmouthshire County Council (Caldicot Castle and Country Park) and the National Trust for Scotland (Crathes Castle, Garden and Estate).
Managing complex sites
Alongside our consultancy experience, our sister company, Planning Solutions Limited, manages a number of visitor sites, including:
- CONKERS, a 120-acre woodland
- Cotswold Country Park and Beach, a country park
- Kent Life, a heritage farm park
This hands-on experience gives us an insider’s understanding of the complexities of managing a site, from the financial pressures, operational realities, and commercial drivers that determine whether a visitor site thrives in the long term. We know what it takes to build sustainable, resilient sites – not from the outside looking in, but from direct, day-to-day involvement. Our operational experience translates directly into better consultancy advice.
What our clients say
“Planning Solutions Consulting worked with us to evaluate the market for Hampshire County Council’s country parks and produce recommendations on how these could be transformed, together with cost and income analysis and projections. Their experience and contacts within the visitor attraction market have been of great benefit. They were able to start work quickly to capture results from a busy period at the parks and consulted with a large number and variety of stakeholders within a tight timescale. We were regularly kept informed and deadlines were met. The team are very approachable and worked as if they were part of our programme team.” Stephanie Rogers, Programme Manager, Country Parks Transformation, Hampshire County Council
“Cumbria Connect commissioned Planning Solutions Consulting to conduct a feasibility study, looking at access improvements and interventions as part of the development phase of a DEFRA funded Landscape Recovery Scheme. Throughout the process, Richard, Kevin and Duncan were professional and knowledgeable, bringing with them a wealth of experience. They were really easy to work with; engaging regularly with the project team and partnership staff, and always on hand to answer questions and keep us informed of progress. They produced an in-depth report including detailed recommendations and options, and this has supported us greatly in developing our proposals for the site.” Client Team Cumbria Connect
“PSCL were selected as a consultant to complete a high-level review, of development plans for a new Welcome Building and projected visitor numbers, at RSPB St Aidan’s. Despite it being a relatively small piece of work in a short time frame, the team committed considerable time and resource to it, visited the site, carried out independent research and went above and beyond what was expected of them. Richard, Kevin and Duncan are professional, friendly and communicative, and bring with them a wealth of experience in visitor centre development and management. It has been a pleasure to work with PSCL. The final report was delivered on time and to a very high standard.” Julia Phillips, RSPB Project Manager
Get in touch about your Recreation or Visitor Management Plan
If you’re looking to take a more structured approach to recreation and visitor management at your site, we’d be glad to talk it through. We’ve been working across country parks, nature reserves, coastal destinations, and heritage sites throughout the UK for over 20 years.
Contact Richard Linington on 07866 742628, email richard@pslplan.co.uk.