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Rural Stakeholders & Regeneration Success (Edexcel A Level Geography)

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Regeneration Strategies

  • Large-scale developments are less common in rural areas; however, over recent years these areas have come under pressure from:

    • Housing developers

    • Tourists 

    • City-dwellers seeking a country life

  • Some decisions on rural regeneration and rebranding strategies generate more conflict within local communities than others, such as:

    • Renewable energy 

      • Developments, such as wind and solar farms, often lead to NIMBYism e.g. local people are for renewable energy but don’t want wind turbines behind their house

    • Housing developments

      • Local residents often oppose housing developments, despite knowing more houses are needed:

        • Air and noise pollution created during construction 

        • The extra traffic congestion created on the roads

      • Developers attempt to dismiss the concerns of existing residents by calling them NIMBYs

    • Derelict land

      • Local people in rural areas welcome nature establishing itself in former industrial sites e.g. quarry pits

      • Regeneration plans seeking to build on these rural brownfield sites are often met with negative responses from local residents

    • Conservation

      • The conservation of natural areas is often an important element of regeneration schemes for locals

      • There is an expectation that regeneration plans should have a negligible impact on local wildlife and ecosystems.

      • Local people and conservation groups (e.g. Wildlife Trust, The National Trust) will not support projects which fail to do this

Regeneration along the North Antrim coast

Impacts of regeneration at the Giant’s Causeway

Regeneration Along the North Antrim Coast

Background

  • County Antrim is located in the north-east of Northern Ireland

  • The Giant’s Causeway was designated a World Heritage Site in 1986 because of its unique geology and striking landscape

  • Attracts over 1 million tourists per year 

  • A fire destroyed the old visitor centre in 2000

The Giant’s causeway visitor centre

  • Provides 75 full-time jobs 

  • Challenges for local communities: 

    • Overtourism (too many visitors)

    • The money spent on parking etc goes to the National Trust, not the local community

    • Community access to the site is now limited by the National Trust, despite having had access to it for thousands of year

    • 65% of the community were not involved in the tourist industry, so make little monetary gain or contribute to tourism development

Criteria of success for different stakeholders

  • National Trust - increased visitor numbers, increased revenue

  • Moyle District Council - more employment, higher tax revenues 

  • Local community - less disruption due to tourist numbers

  • Translink (public transport network) - increased demand for services, more profits 

  • Local businesses (e.g. cafes, craft shops, hotel) - more customers, more profit

Conflict created via proposed golf course

  • Development plans to create the Bushmills Dunes Golf Resort and Spa at Runkerry

  • Runkerry is 500 metres away from the Giant’s Causeway - a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which led to objections from environmentalists (e.g. the National Trust, UNESCO)

  • Due to strong opposition and inadequate finances, the golf course did not go ahead

Worked Example

With reference to a named example, explain the limitations of the strategies used to regenerate a rural place.

[6 marks]

  • The question asks for a rural location, not an urban location

  • To access Level 3, a named example must be included

  • Better answers will include two example of regeneration strategies used in the named location

Answer:

Regeneration strategies may involve economic, social and environmental aims and it is difficult to meet all of these in one strategy. This results in limitations for different stakeholders, depending on their social and economic characteristics, and their level of environmental concerns. The North Antrim coast, in Northern Ireland, is famous for the Giant’s Causeway, which is a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. Due to its importance, there are a huge number of stakeholders involved in any development decisions; and this can lead to conflict. Plans to develop a £100 million golf resort, called Bushmills Dunes Golf Resort and Spa at Runkerry (500 metres from the Heritage Site) created conflict. The National Trust believed that the golf course, with its 120-bedroomed hotel and 70 lodges, would impact on the distinctive landscape, despite the 360 jobs it would create in the area. The golf course development failed to materialise due to financial issues.  

The Giant’s Causeway is also a popular tourist attraction, attracting more than 1 million visitors per year. As a result, The National Trust wanted to create a flagship visitors’ centre, after the previous one burnt down. The new visitors’ centre opened in 2012, creating a further 75 full-time jobs. However, the majority of the local community gain very little from living in this tourist honeypot and experience a variety of challenges. Their access to the site, which previous generations have had access to for thousands of years, is restricted by the National Trust, who now manage the land. The money spent on parking at the visitors’ centre and in the visitors’ centre goes back to the National Trust, rather than the community. The local residents feel unsafe on the roads due to the volume of traffic, international tourists driving on the wrong side of the road and coaches driving too fast. So, despite the economic benefits to Moyle District Council and the National Trust, living so close to a World Heritage Site is limiting the quality of life of local communities.

Variables to Measure Changes

  • As with urban settings, the success of rural regeneration can be judged using four variables:

    • Economic e.g. increasing average incomes and the number of better, paid jobs

  • Social e.g. reducing levels of deprivation

  • Demographic changes e.g. improving life expectancy and reduced health deprivation

  • Environmental e.g. reducing pollution levels and the amount of derelict land

  • The Egan Wheel is a useful technique to use when judging the success of rural regeneration strategies

    • It can also be used in urban settings

egan-wheel
Using the Egan Wheel to plan sustainable regeneration schemes

Examiner Tips and Tricks

The Egan Wheel can be used to create an evaluative scoring system, which could be used as part of a questionnaire or interview. This technique could be used to compare your two chosen places. A small sample of a questionnaire is shown below.

egan-wheel-2

Stakeholder Criteria for Success

  • Rural regeneration involves a wide range of stakeholders with different social, economic and environmental expectations and interests

    • Therefore the relative success of regeneration is often viewed differently by individuals and groups of stakeholders e.g.

      • Locals

      • Local government

      • National government

      • Developers (property, business)

      • Land owners

      • Local businesses

      • Farmers

  • A stakeholder’s lived experience of a place can affect their judgement of rural regeneration and whether it has successfully changed the place, as well as the image of it

  • Successful rural regeneration may involve:

    • Better leisure and retail

    • More jobs

    • More visitors

    • Better housing 

    • Higher biodiversity

  • Rural areas which cause the most amount of conflict are:

    • National Parks

    • The Urban-rural fringe

    • Greenbelts

Stakeholders’ Perceptions on Rural Regeneration

Stakeholder

Viewpoint

National governments and planners

  • More likely to have a perceived sense of a rural place rather than a lived experience, so the needs of the local community might not be met

  • Development plans will be carefully considered due to the government’s responsibility to protect rural areas for future generations (e.g. National Parks) 

Local governments

  • The long-term health of the local economy and the traditions and heritage of the area are more likely to be considered by members of the local government

    •  These members are more likely to have a lived experience of the place they work in

Local residents

  • Residents may have a lengthy lived experience of a place, with multiple generations having lived there

  • Some residents will welcome regeneration, especially if they will benefit from it

  • Some residents will not want the area to change, especially if the regeneration plan is not sympathetic to the character of the area

Local businesses

  • Will encourage a regeneration scheme that will expand their market and customer base

  • A new development will be viewed more positively if it involves the local business community in the decision-making process

  • Local businesses may view a development project negatively if it increases competition in the area

Second home owners and visitors

  • People who are regular visitors or own a second home in a rural area, will have a different lived experience to the locals

  • Visitors and holiday home owners are mostly seasonal (over the summer months), so may favour regeneration projects that improve their experience over that time period

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