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Protecting and enhancing the environment

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Culture and sport help improve the quality of the built and natural environment and create a sense of place. The quality of the public realm is enhanced through good design, iconic buildings, public art and open spaces. This helps create safe, healthy and distinctive neighbourhoods. Well designed and high quality cultural and sports facilities can also improve the physical environment of an area. Involving cultural practitioners in planning and designing new spaces helps local people develop a sense of cultural attachment and identity, place and pride.

The quality and diversity of the region’s historic environment is a major contributor to the quality of life of residents. It also helps make the South East a unique visitor destination.

The region has significant untapped potential for tourism related growth. It is essential that further growth is sustainable. Visitor impacts on the region’s economy, communities and environment need to be managed so that they benefit all stakeholders both now and in the future. Green tourism supports the principles of sustainability. Eighty tourism businesses in the South East are accredited in the Green Tourism Business Scheme in recognition of their best environmental practice in the sector.

‘The built environment of the region has a profound influence on the quality of life of residents of the South East. Our cities, towns and villages provide the main source of employment opportunities, access to essential services, leisure opportunities, and most importantly, a home to the vast majority of the citizens of the region. It is essential that they are managed and developed in a way that reinforces and enhances all these roles’.
The South East Plan -a clear vision for the South East, South East England Regional Assembly, Draft 2006 (Management of the Built and Historic Environment)


‘The South East region is blessed with a diverse and, in many areas, high quality natural environment and countryside, including a particularly high proportion of nationally designated landscapes (covering 35% of the region: higher than any other region).The countryside of the region contributes to the quality of life for those living in the South East, and is a key asset to the region’s economy attracting visitors and businesses.’
The South East Plan - a clear vision for the South East, South East England Regional Assembly, Draft 2006 (Countryside and Landscape Management)

See what Robin Hooper, Chief Executive of Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council says about culture and sport and the quality of public realm.

Sport and culture are community activities. The council has taken the community of interest into the community of place, using culture to improve the physical environment of neighbourhoods.
Robin Hooper, Chief Executive, Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council, Inspiring our ambitions through sport, arts, culture and place, Solace/IDeA, 2007


 

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