The Valleys Regional Park
Parc Rhanbarthol y Cymoedd
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All rights reserved 2014
LATEST NEWS AND EVENTS
As shown by its success to date, the Valleys Regional Park offers a coherent, transformational vision for the natural environment which, through an innovative, integrated, strategic approach to management and investment, will establish the Valleys and the wider region as leaders in creating and sustaining an attractive, thriving, and productive environment that delivers sustainable economic, social, and environmental benefits and a high quality of life for all its citizens.
The VRP concluded its first phase in early 2014 with the end of the ERDF project, the WECAN project, and the KESS studentship.
Preparations are now in place to continue and develop the Valleys Regional Park further based on the independent evaluation reports and the Future Options Study .
The nature of these projects, especially the ERDF project, means that some additional data will continue to become available throughout 2014 and beyond.
The evaluation report has shown that taking into consideration those data available up until the end of April 2014:
- 39 infrastructure and landscape projects given full committal for delivery were completed
- 40 interpretation projects and events took place
- 151 km of managed access to the countryside had been created.
- 543 participants had been trained and acquired recognised qualifications through the Community Tourism Ambassadors programme.
- 16 new direct jobs had been created in visitor centres etc. with 14 more anticipated.
- Employment generated by associated work directly on construction and site development is estimated to equate to 60 Full Time Equivalent jobs.
- 1,736,000 could be generated every year from visitor spending at 24 capital investments, and equates to supporting some 87.3 FTE jobs.
- Eight events are estimated to have generated an additional 73,339.00 GVA, and therefore supported around 3.5 FTE jobs for one year.
The Future Options Study has produced a number of recommendations:
- The VRP should be an integrated natural resource planning, funding coordination, and delivery mechanism for the Valleys in conjunction with the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales with an agreed set of common guiding principles across authorities that provide the framework for VRP delivery.
- The VRP should adopt an ecosystem approach to prudent natural resource management as an overarching priority, detailing clear priorities for support and effective delivery, with three interrelated strategic objectives that provide opportunities for the national tackling poverty agenda; Prosperous Communities, Healthy Communities, and Learning Communities. As such, there is a clear rationale for actions that support sustainable tourism; enterprise and energy; health and wellbeing; education and skills, and urban and housing.
- To ensure that the benefits are effectively targeted and delivered, the VRP should support and help facilitate NRW in the creation of natural resource management plans, which should form a component of the appropriate Single Integrated Plans developed through the Local Service Boards.
- The Valleys' cultural heritage should continue to be a focus for the VRP with an emphasis on exploring how it can work more creatively and productively with arts and cultural organisations to strengthen cultural identity and engage communities more effectively.
- Partners should devise a new strategic VRP Master Plan, adhering to the geographical area set out in the 2007 Master Plan and retaining appropriate elements of it, which provides connectivity with adjacent natural resource and/or green infrastructure plans through a set of common guiding principles that allow for joint actions where relevant.
- Identification and the development of training and employment opportunities through effective community engagement must be a key focus to create and develop a better skilled workforce with opportunities actually linked to the VRP projects and initiatives.
- Strategic vision and local delivery are not mutually exclusive; rather, quite the opposite - they are two sides of the same coin. Through coordinated collaborative planning, future development of the VRP should be integrated where appropriate with the Metro development and associated land use opportunities in the Cardiff Capital Region, support urban and housing regeneration such as that proposed in the Vibrant and Viable Places strategy, and contribute towards development of the foundational economy in local communities as detailed in the recent CREW Deep Place Study.
- The considerable challenge of collaboration and working in partnership, despite the desire and need to do so, should not be underestimated and a strong, transparent governance structure is vital to support and enable that. Having explored governance arrangements in similar initiatives across the UK and assessed the options, it is recommended that the VRP should be the outcome of a strong binding agreement between partners overseen by an executive partnership board with clear links to Local Service Boards and the City Region Boards. It is suggested that independent advice be sought regarding the partnership agreement, the composition of the board, and its proposed terms of reference and function.
- A dedicated core team is necessary for the effective and efficient delivery of the VRP. It should be funded and resourced to coordinate and manage the VRP activities, adding value through leveraging additional finance and resources to support the activities of partners as appropriate. The core team hosting arrangements should maintain firm links with the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales to ensure an integrated mutually beneficial relationship and links with emerging policy and practice. Appropriate partners should be identified to employ the team, which would benefit from being physically hosted within the Welsh Government or Natural Resources Wales, which need not be the employing body.
- The VRP should funded and financed through a mixed portfolio of funding as appropriate with partners acting as the VRP delivery agents. The opportunities for funding through European Strategic Investment (ESI) Funds (ERDF, ESF, and RDP) should be explored immediately to produce one or more coherent VRP funding bids and indicative suggestions are made within this report in keeping with the themes and ESI priorities. Other appropriate EU funding options such as INTERREG, LIFE, Horizon 2020, and ERASMUS+ programmes should be examined as well. Other Welsh and UK domestic funding routes, such the HLF Landscape Partnership programmeoffer significant opportunities, whilst the Welsh Government's Nature Fund offers a focus for immediate action in keeping with the proposed VRP actions. In addition, potential collaborative funding opportunities with the NHS and Local Health Boards to help address health inequalities and support enhanced wellbeing through greater use of the environment should be explored. The VRP should also investigate the opportunity to use potential revenue from business rates arising from renewable energy developments to help sustain its activities.
- Where sustainable revenue streams can be identified, funding for initiatives and activities should be sought via repayable investment opportunities through reputable, responsible organisations such as the Charity Bank. One potential example for this could be the establishment of a cooperative approach to micro-hydro energy generation to provide a critical mass and help mitigate risk to individual projects. There are opportunities to link these to heritage projects where possible to support their sustainability.
- The opportunities for private investment for projects and initiatives as well as support for peer-to-peer lending such as through Crowdfunding and Kickstarter have been investigated. In the case of the latter, the opportunities might be relevant to small-scale niche projects. With respect to private sector involvement, potential partners are more likely to invest in larger projects with greater impact and profile, and here a collective approach through VRP would seem to have advantages since it might be easier to engage at a strategic level with the benefits being realised locally. The approach suggested is through the development of mutually beneficial relationships and investment opportunities.
- One of the major first steps for a newly invigorated VRP must be to explore development of a common resources master plan to examine and identify current and emerging opportunities. An agreed, prioritised VRP business and delivery plan should be drawn up by early 2015 to cover the period 2015-2020 as part of a longer strategic plan to 2030. In the interim, the existing VRP team should seek to take advantage of current opportunities such as the Nature Fund to maintain momentum and provide a new kick-start to the initiative.
- The option of developing an associated VRP trust amongst partners should be explored at a later stage in order to further the collective objectives of the VRP as appropriate adding to the capacity already within partner organisations.
- It is suggested that the tourism group investigates options for the establishment of a Valleys Business Improvement District involving private sector and enterprise partners to help support promotional and marketing activities for 'The Valleys'.
- Experience of Regional Parks in rest of the UK, and especially Europe, suggests that formal recognition of the VRP as a tangible Regional Park would provide the necessary visibility to partners, communities, visitors, and businesses to engage and involve them effectively and realise the benefits with use of 'The Valleys' as the outward facing wider tourism brand, which would promote the VRP and other Valleys attractions.
- To create the necessary consistency across the region, each organisation should formally endorse the vision, objectives, and boundary of the VRP and promote it through its plans and policies as appropriate.
VRP REPORTS
Click to download
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Phase 1 Independent Evaluation
- Future Options Study