Case Study: Steyning, West Sussex

The Visitor and Tourism Group of the Steyning and District Community Partnership has worked with Hidden Britain to produce a series of walks guides, making the most of Steyning's key strengths of heritage and a fabulous natural environment.

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Need for the project

The Steyning and District Community partnership was set up in order to deliver projects designed to address needs identified in the Healthcheck undertaken in 2006. Four focus groups, were set up to look at: Transport and Accessibility, Environment, Economy, Social and Community.

Through these groups, research was carried out to ascertain how Steyning fared in these areas. In conjunction with Tourism South East they organised a Tourism Seminar at the Old Tolgate Hotel in Bramber inviting people from neighbouring communities. From this, the “Visitor and Tourism Group” was formed. This group comprising community volunteers and local businesses have taken on responsibility for management of Steyning as a visitor destination .

Based on the research gained through the healthcheck, the group identified several key aims:

Improving the physical environment
Providing better information on the town and area
Improving the visitor experience.

These were all designed to increase the economic stability of the town and its businesses, and improve local facilities for residents and visitors alike.

Planning the Project

The V&T group had successfully spearheaded several initiatives prior to involvement with Hidden Britain, namely; creating the “enjoy Steyning” leaflet, the steyningsouthdowns website, new finger posts and signage, and improved toilet and carparking facilities.

With these completed the group had struck a small impasse and required a new focus to really move forward. Hidden Britain was invited to audit the progress to date and see if new projects could be identified to continue increasing Steyning’s visitor draw.

Although great progress had been made, Steyning still wasn’t making the most of its strengths and there was little to interpret the information for visitor to encourage longer stays. In order to address this the group decided to create a series of new self-guided walks, bringing to life the history and attractions of the area. These would be designed on a variety of distance and difficulties to appeal to a broad spectrum of visitors and as far as possible incorporate local businesses and attraction into the routes.

A smaller group took on the task and with support from HBSE; identified the routes, tested them, collected images, drafted content, took editorial decisions on the mapping and design, and planned distribution and publicity.

The new walks were completed early in 2010 and launched at the Steyning Showcase on 27th February.

Project Outputs :

4 x A3 self –guided walks leaflets, each depicting a specific route and detailing a different aspect of the landscape, history and attractions of the area. 40,000 copies of each have been printed and have been distributed to local businesses, strategic venues within a 10 mile radius and wider Tourist Information Centres & large attractions.
Interactive page for the Steyning website, click here to view
Publicity posters and banners to launch the project
Two of the walks have been developed as simplified route cards to be included in the new South Downs Way walks pack produced by the South Downs Joint Committee (soon to become the National Park Authority).

Achievements of the Project:

Businesses engaged (34)
Although one of the group members runs a B&B there has been little active business input to date. However now that a finished product is available and being widely distributed the group are actively working to engage better with the businesses, although many have been showcased on the Steyning website and in other marketing materials free of charge.

No. of volunteers (5)
The sub group of the SDCP have all invested considerable time and effort into making this project a success, although there has and continues to be wider input from the Partnership.

Skills & training
Whilst no formal training has been arranged as part of the project, volunteers have gained skills and experience in various areas, most particularly in; obtaining funding, project management, commissioning and working with designers and printers, distribution and publicity.

Marketing support
HBSE has assisted Steyning in development of content for several destination websites, both regionally and nationally. Through Hidden Britain the Steyning walks will also feature in the South Downs Way walks pack, which is distributed to businesses across the National Park.

Other
The success of the project and initial grant has attracted further funding form Collabor8, who in turn are keen to continue to financially support the development of tourism in Steyning.

Hidden Britain Input:

Hidden Britain became involved through the Market Towns Advisor for West Sussex and initially prepared a review of the Partnerships work to date and helped identify a series of actions to take forward. As a key action as to make more of the landscape on the doorstep, HB supported the project group in developing the action plan and funding application for the walks guides.

With funding in place HB supported the group every step of the way; from being an interface with cartographers and designers, providing photography, coordinating workload, and providing key tourism expertise to ensure a successful final product.
With the walks complete HB continued to assist in planning the distribution and publicity, creating the interactive web page, designing posters and banners for launch events, and helping develop content for third party websites.