‘Public perception of the management of Horton Country Park’

Abstract

A case study of a country park in Surrey was used to study the public perception of the
management of the site: for example what the users of the park felt about the standard of
maintenance of the park. A site description was written using a phase 1 habitat survey (see
appendix 4). Research included questionnaires and research into previous published works on
the park. The site description included county, borough/district, local planning authority,
national grid reference, climate, geology, topography and hydrology, and soil. Questionnaires
were handed out to park users and answered on site. A mixture of quota and convenience
sampling was used to gather data; quota sampling was used to gather the widest range of park
users and convenience sampling was used to pick the sample. The results have shown that the
people who use that park are happy with the management that the council provides and are
pleased with its overall appearance and maintenance. They commented on the way that the
trees were well maintained, and the variety of wildlife within the park. The pathways and car
park on the whole also got positive reactions from the users. It is critical that any policy is
constantly reviewed at all stages of making. The results showed that there seems to be a need
for improved communication between policy-makers and the public and the need to address
the perceived ineffectiveness of public participation. The main limitation to this dissertation is
that more questionnaires could have been collected to give a more accurate result or other
research conducted.