Discovering user recreational values for local public services: Attitudes and perspectives regarding a country park’s facilities

This paper provides a snapshot of people's attitudes regarding the facilities housed at Brandon Country Park, a local amenity located in Thetford Forest, Suffolk. Using both short answer face-to-face surveys and a computer-based 'management task', this project invited respondents to indicate whether they felt the park managers were maximising this public amenity and, if not, where alterations could be made to more efficiently utilise this space. Our results indicate that people are reasonably content with the services provided, yet some small improvements could be made to raise the park's appeal and/or efficiency. Alterations could include raising car parking charges and considering more carefully how to target the accessibility of the Park. For the latter, this concerns both the type of activities held and the respective transportation links. The objective of the project was to investigate how Brandon Country Park can operate more effectively. However, it is our belief that these surveys can serve as useful tools for a much wider spectrum of environmental public amenity managers creating some first insights regarding they could perform and take forward key investment and planning decisions.