Final Report on Recreational Mitigation in the New Forest By Sarah Nield

Recreational Mitigation Partnerships have emerged as an eAicient and eAective means by which a group of local planning authorities, who are all within the zone of influence of a protected area can collaborate to meet part of their obligations under the Conservation of Habitat and Species Regulations 2017. Such obligations call upon these local planning authorities to implement a policy to mitigate the recreational impact of additional new residential accommodation. These policies will often require developers of residential accommodation to make payments to fund such mitigation measures. Those funds are then used for two purposes: first measures to regulate recreation within a protected area for example recreational rangers and educational initiatives, and secondly to support the provision of alternative recreational greenspace outside the protected area to divert recreational pressure. Several local planning authorities within the zone of influence of a protected area may work together to maximise their mitigation eAorts through a Recreational Mitigation Partnerships which uses the pooled funds to provide co-ordinated recreational management. These measures are explained in more detail in Section 1 of this Report whilst Section 4 describes the work of three established Recreational Mitigation Partnerships close to the New Forest.

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