Cultural Assets
11.24 The South West region is rich in cultural assets and resources which together form an impressive infrastructure for local residents and visitors alike. Existing provision includes major built and natural heritage sites, music and film festivals, museums and galleries, sports facilities and events. This infrastructure is crucial to the South West's engagement with the creative and knowledge based economy, as well as providing a solid resource base for sustainable tourism. A cultural infrastructure strategy for the South West, People, Places and Spaces: The Joint Cultural Infrastructure Strategy is due for public consultation in early 2007, (Genesis 2007), and links closely to the Regional Economic Strategy (May 2006) and Draft Regional Spatial Strategy (South West Regional Assembly, 2006). The report will inform cultural infrastructure development in terms of what and where regional and sub regional facilities are, or plan to be, located across the region and what cultural events are, or plan to be, happening through to 2026. This forward-planning of cultural assets coincides with the forthcoming London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and Cultural Olympiad proposed to start in 2008.
Museums, Galleries, Libraries and Archives
11.25 There are almost 2,000 museums, galleries, libraries and archives in the South West serving a wide range of constituencies and specialist interest groups. While not all are immediately identifiable as cultural assets or visitor attractions, they nonetheless form an important knowledge base for the region with local nodes and points of presence in almost every community. Together, these institutions attracted nearly 9 million visitors and users in 2002. All local authority library services and archives provide Internet access and 84% of registered museums have web sites.
Sport
11.26 According to a report for Sport England by Cambridge Econometrics (2003), sports facilities and venues in the South West encourage 575,000 people per annum to participate in sports. People in the South West spend more money on active participation in sport than attendance at sporting events or viewing sports on screen media. High profile sports activities attract over 1 million people and nearly £90 million into the region from elsewhere.
11.27 The South West is home to 36 major sporting venues with professional rugby, football and county cricket in towns and cities throughout the region. Regionally, more than £185 million has been invested in sport since 1996 including University of Bath’s Team Bath initiative and the National Sailing Academy In Weymouth and Portland. Future multi-million pound new builds are planned in Bristol and Plymouth to enhance the region’s sporting offer of excellence and visitor attractions.
11.28 An indication of how much local people value their cultural assets is given in an Arts Council England report which found South West respondents were most likely, along with London and the South East (all 67%) to agree that “if my local area lost its arts and cultural activities, the people living here would lose something of value”; and Sport England Active People Survey which shows 70.5% of South West adults (aged 16+) are satisfied with the sports provision in their local area, just above the national figure of 69.5%, (ONS 2004 and ipsos MORI 2006).
11.29 Given the projected increase of population for the South West over the next 20 years, the popularity of ‘recreation and culture’, and the contribution of culture to the regional economy, culture may be expected to rise in economic importance in the region. Festivals and events will be a central focus of future planning to further generate wealth, attract tourists and enhance the regional identity. There is an immediate opportunity for the South West through the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games and in the proposed Cultural Olympiad from 2008.
Built and Natural Heritage
11.30 Of the 350,000 records of monuments and archaeological sites on the English Heritage Past Heritage database for England, 22% of the total (76,589) are in the South West. The region also has 35% of all scheduled monuments in England and hosts 24% of the national List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historical Interest. The National Trust open 83 historic houses and gardens in the South West and English Heritage open over 100 sites, including Stonehenge and Tintagel Castle.
11.31 The region's outstanding natural heritage assets include the Cotswolds, Mendips, Quantocks, the National Parks of Dartmoor and Exmoor, and coastlines of Dorset and Cornwall. There are 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the South West: Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites; the City of Bath; Dorset and East Devon Coast (the Jurassic Coast); and the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape.
Festivals
11.32 The South West is host to a range of international festivals including Bath International Music Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Wildscreen Natural History Film Festival, and Glastonbury Festival which alone attracts over 100,000 people to one of the world’s largest popular music festivals. Local but equally distinctive festivals involve hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors such as the ‘Obby ‘Oss Festival in Padstow, St Paul’s Carnival in Bristol and Cheese Rolling Festival at Coopers Hill in Gloucestershire.
Funding in the Cultural Sector
11.33 Between 2001and 2004, the South West was granted the fifth highest level of Lottery funding for cultural activities of the nine English regions, receiving £198 million compared to the national average (excluding London) of £183 million, (Kinghurst 2004). The South West also received £105 million of government funds for cultural activities, the third highest level of funding after London and the South East. Lottery funds which are allocated according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), place the South West above the national average. However, if IMD is used to allocate national and local government funds for cultural activities in the South West, this will have a detrimental effect on provision in future years. The region has the lowest proportion of the most deprived Super Output Areas (SOA) in England with only 4% as defined by the IMD. In addition, trends in local authority spending show, according to Local Authorities; A Change in Cultural Climate, (Holden 2006), cultural services are a vulnerable area for cutback because of their non-statutory status.