Planning for recreation in rural England

In this paper, we analyze recent rural strategy initiatives in England in a n attempt to explore the relationship between planning policy and the provi sion of outdoor recreation. Notwithstanding a wider rhetoric of accessibili ty to che countryside, much recreational planning activity has been based o n the discriminatory notion of acceptable leisure activities. Acceptability in this case is associated with a land use planning system in which land i tself assumes a form of naturalness, in contrast to its uses, which are see n to be socially constructed. This dualism is based nor on any definition o f demand, need, or public interest, bur on a continuing spatial determinism in which rights of land ownership are constructed as both socially and mor ally superior co other rights. This continues to legitimize a rationalized form of protection through che statutory planning system.