Environmental, Natural & Cultural Community Assets

Promoting our heritage and attractions in partnership, through innovative community led projects

Tywi Gateway Trust | Parc yr Esgob Walled Garden | Community & Stakeholder Engagement

Tywi Gateway Trust was set up as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2016. It manages Parc yr Esgob (Bishop’s Park) in Abergwili, which is made up of the Old Bishop’s Palace Grounds, the Walled Garden and the Great Meadow which are leased from Carmarthenshire County Council and the Representative Body of the Church in Wales.

During the initial stages of the Bishop’s Park Project, it received £2million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to restore and make improvements to the park.

In 2023, the National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded the park development phase funding for a new project to restore the Walled Garden and turn it into a multifunctional community space, and at the same time the project received additional funding from UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

PLANED were commissioned to undertake community and stakeholder engagement to inform the development stage of the project. This included speaking to users and non-users of the garden, and to seek out the views of communities considered more hard to reach. The information gathered from this process would be specifically required to inform the development of specific project plans such as the Activity Plan and Audience Engagement Plan, as well as the revised Business Plan for the Trust

National Trust Cymru | Freshwater West | Visitor Research, Community Engagement

Freshwater West is a beautiful stretch of golden sand backed by dunes on the Castlemartin Peninsula in a remote, rural location in south west Pembrokeshire. Freshwater West lies within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It is Wales’s premier surfing beach and has a global reputation, but is also much loved by local people. Its use as the location for filming the Shell House and Dobby’s grave for the Harry Potter stories has led to it being a destination for many of the book’s fans.

There is very limited visitor infrastructure – toilets, a small car park (with overflow) and mobile catering operation. An activity concession operates from the beach in respect of water sports uses, and the RNLI have had a life-saving station on the beach during the peak season recognising the popularity of the beach and the strong rip currents that occur here. There are two memorial stones commemorating the loss of 37 Royal Marines who were drowned in an accident offshore in 1943. The dunes are designated as a SSSI due to the high quality of the habitat and the rarity of the species that are found here.

In recent years, Freshwater West has become very busy. This has been somewhat accelerated because of the Harry Potter link, and subsequently by demand created by the COVID staycation boom. Additionally, the growth in the use of motorhomes and campervans has placed more pressure on the parking spaces available. Visitor pressure has also been placed on the environment itself with erosion of the sand dunes, creation of new ‘informal paths’, beach fires and littering.

The result is that visitor pressure exceeds capacity on a growing number of days. This has also led to traffic congestions at peak times. This also presents difficulties in terms of road access for local people, farmers and the emergency services. All of which impacts on the quality of the visitor experience and local host communities.

PLANED worked with another consultancy (Planning Solutions Consulting) to carry out visitor research in order to deliver a feasibility study and to prepare a sustainable development plan for Freshwater West. The feasibility study and sustainable development plan needed to consider existing designations and the local planning policy frameworks.

Henry Tudor Trust | Henry Tudor Visitor Centre | Visitor Research, Community Engagement

Henry Tudor Trust is an independent charity that is overseeing the development and which will ultimately oversee the operation of a new heritage visitor attraction celebrating the links that Henry Tudor (Henry VII) has with south west Wales. The new Visitor Centre will be situated in Pembroke, adjacent to the castle which was the place of his birth, and will tell the story of his early life and of the lives of ordinary people in Wales at that time.

PLANED were commissioned to work with the local community, with schools and with visitors to better understand the themes and the stories that the Visitor Centre would interpret. Questions also focussed on the best means of displaying information, as well as on other practical considerations such as car parking, accessibility and on pricing.

Picton Castle Trust | Picton Castle Walled Garden Project | Visitor Research, Project Evaluation

Picton Castle Trust is an independent charity operating Picton Castle and Gardens as a heritage visitor attraction and education resource, situated between Haverfordwest and Narberth in Pembrokeshire. The Trust have recently undertaken a large (£1.25m) grant funded project with significant investment from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project sought to renovate and conserve its Walled Garden and the historic structures including greenhouses and utility buildings, adjacent. The project also included an extensive Activity Plan to develop new audiences and engage more volunteers.

PLANED were commissioned to evaluate the delivery of the activities for this project and
worked with the client team to ensure full compliance with the requirements of the funder in
the reporting of this work.

Aberystwyth University | Coastal Uplands: Heritage and Tourism | Community Engagement

Aberystwyth University and University College Dublin collaborated in the development and delivery of this Ireland-Wales Interreg Project called Coastal Uplands: Heritage and Tourism (CUPHAT). This project focussed on two coastal upland areas in Wales and two in Ireland, looking at promoting sense of place within communities and better tourism practises based upon this.

PLANED and Cambrian Mountains Initiative CIC were jointly commissioned to take on the community engagement aspects of the project within the two Welsh upland areas. Whilst each of the two organisations were responsible primarily for delivery in their own area, the two collaborated and supported one-another widely to achieve efficiency of delivery and consistency of approach across the project.

COMMUNITY HERITAGE LEAFLETS LIBRARY

**These were all produced between 2009 & 2013, therefore some content may no longer be applicable or relevant, but are shared for reference purposes only