Agenda item

To receive a report providing an update on the Strategic Access Management and Monitoring (SAMM) Project.

·         Annex 1 – 2016 People Counter Data

·         Annex 2 – 2016/17 Visitor Survey Data

·         Annex 3 – SANGS Monitoring Information

The Board considered a report providing an update on the Strategic Access Management and Monitoring (SAMM) Project.  The report summarised the project’s activities and achievements since the Board’s last meeting and included updates on: staffing and recruitment, warden activity, SANG Visitor Surveys, access to SPA land, educational work and monitoring activities.

Staffing

It was reported that at the end of August 2017 two year round wardens had taken up posts elsewhere.  A recruitment exercise had successfully filled one vacancy and the second vacancy had been backfilled by extending the contract of one seasonal warden for the remainder of the winter season.  A second recruitment exercise to fill this post would run concurrently with the recruitment of seasonal wardens early in 2018. 

Education was considered a key contributory factor to the SPA’s success and it had been proposed that a full time education officer be appointed to provide additional support to the existing Education and Communication Co-ordinator and enable the expansion of the SAMM educational programme.  It was expected that the Education Officer would receive a salary in the region of £30,000 and, if the post was approved, the recruitment process would start in July 2018.

SANG Visitor Surveys

Wardens continued to monitor visitor awareness of the SPA.  To facilitate the collection and analysis of data and information gathered from visitor surveys six tablet devices had been purchased and work was underway to develop the 2018 visitor surveys.

Access to SPA Land

New access agreements with Surrey Heath Borough Council, Surrey Wildlife Trust and Horsell Common Preservation Society had been signed.  The new agreements extended access arrangements for the full lifetime of the Natural England hosting period and meant that all access agreements were now aligned with the same end date.

Work to negotiate an access agreement with the Ministry of Defence had progressed well.  The draft agreement was aligned with national objectives and agreements and was expected to be signed on the 9^th January 2018.

Communications, Promotions and Events

Work to review and expand the content of the Thames Basin Heaths Partnership website was underway.  Additional content including a calendar of events, downloadable resources and links to the volunteering pages of partner websites would be available from early 2018.

The Greenspace on Your Doorstep booklet continued to be popular and a new print run of 2000 booklets had been delivered for distribution and work was underway to review and update its content.

The 2016 Guided Walks Trial was expanded successfully to include walks in Riverside Nature Reserve, Larks Hill, Chantry Wood, Buckhurst Meadows and Brookwood Country Park.  Social media had been actively used during Keep Britain Tidy’s Love Parks week promote sites across the Thames Basin Heath area.

The Communication and Education Officer had led three school visits for primary schools in the Crowthorne area.  The pupils had participated in an interactive classroom session and had then been taken on a field trip to learn about the heathland habitat and the species that it supported.  The visits had been well received and it was hoped that these visits would continue.

SANGS Monitoring

In order to better understand visitor numbers so that promotion and monitoring work could be improved it was requested that all local authorities reintroduce the practice of recording SANGS data for their own areas.  The SANG Project Manager would then collate the information gathered into a single annual report on the Strategy.  If the proposal was approved, local authority officers would be formally tasked with collecting this data at a meeting in early January 2018.  The data collected would then be used to inform the SAMM project of any new summer SANG surveys that needed to be carried out and allow for more accurate budgeting.

Arising from Members’ questions and comments the following points were noted:

·         It was requested that future reports set out warden activity by site.

·         Commercial dog walkers using the SPA was a growing concern and wardens were working to build up relationships with this group and private individuals walking large numbers of dogs to encourage responsible dog ownership

·         Wardens currently engaged informally with visitors to the SAPA however work was taking place to improve the quality of these interactions.

·         The Partnership was supportive of the desire to increase the educational remit of the SAMM project however it was agreed that more detail of the proposed new Education Officer post was required before a formal decision could be made on whether to proceed with the appointment.

·         It was agreed that an update on the impact of digital marketing and awareness raising activities would be provided at the Board’s next meeting.

RESOLVED that;

      i.        The contents of the Strategic Access Management and Monitoring project report be noted.

     ii.        The SANGS data collection exercise, as set out in the report’s annex, be approved.

    iii.        A decision on the recruitment of an Education Officer be deferred to the Board’s next meeting to enable more information about the post’s terms of reference and governance arrangements to be provided.