Sport England Survey

[DaveK]

That time of year again. I've just had the email request on behalf of Sport England to complete the survey into satisfaction with participation in my sport (Orienteering of course ). As with all these things, some of the questions don't quite 'fit' with what we do; and completing it objectively seemed a bit hard going at times. Not sure if it matters, but seem to remember last year that Orienteering was second rated in terms of 'consumer satisfaction'. Guess such a 'profile' can do no harm (until harsh funding decisions have to be taken )

[Big Jon]

Sport England will do all the surveys it want and orienteering could be ranked first, way ahead of every other sport, but they will still cut funding because orienteering in "not an olympic sport" The Olympics is all that matters to the powers that be. Get used to it, we're not going to get an funding in the future, start preparing for higher fees etc.

[LostAgain]

Get used to it, we're not going to get an funding in the future, start preparing for higher fees etc.

OR reduced paid activity

[IanD]

I used the free-format box at the end to complain about being charged for access to forests which Joe Public can run through for free, and to ask for the Scottish access code to be extended to England.

[Big Jon]

"to ask for the Scottish access code to be extended to England." - good for you Ian, and good luck, but I reckon it will need a real revolution (a la France) to change the access laws in England - too many highly influential and rich men own too much of the land to allow changes to happen - the sort who would probably be prepared to shoot trespassers if they felt they could get away with it.

[DaveK]

"to ask for the Scottish access code to be extended to England." - good for you Ian, and good luck, but I reckon it will need a real revolution (a la France) to change the access laws in England - too many highly influential and rich men own too much of the land to allow changes to happen - the sort who would probably be prepared to shoot trespassers if they felt they could get away with it.

Yes, Big John, of course I recognise this generally (but not exclusively), to be the case; but is the same not true of Scotland and if not, why so? I remember a lovely walk across Rannock Moor a few years ago meeting a local who, in discussion, said (I seem to remember) that everything we could see all around belonged to a Danish businessman - the (now late) developer of Tetra Pak. No doubt rich and powerful (as surely most other major Scottish landowners will be) - but how do you come to have such excellent access laws then - just different political priorities (and interests)? As it happens, where I am, quite a lot of land is owned by an 'Arab concern' and they certainly do not seem to encourage public access.

[Scott]

just different political priorities (and interests)?

More a case of different histories. Scotland, like the Scandinavian countries, has always had a tradition of free and open public access to most of the countryside. All the Land Reform (Scotland) Act really did was to codify into law existing access rights that everyone already took for granted, which is why the access-related bit of it was pretty uncontroversial (although the right-to-buy bits were an altogether different matter).

In England the tradition is very different indeed, and historically there has been no public access at all to massive areas of open countryside - something that continued until very recently. The CRoW Act as it was marked a major and (in some parts of the country) highly controversial break with historical tradition, and it was never very likely that the access rights under it would go any further than they did.