Visitors to Northumberland praised after drop in littering, illegal parking and irresponsible camping

A visitor management campaign, ‘Love It Like It’s Yours’, has been run by Northumberland County Council for the past two years, welcoming visitors while educating them on issues such as littering, illegal parking, irresponsible camping, and wildfires.

And there has been a drop in reported issues over the recent summer.

Cllr John Riddle, cabinet member for local services, said: “We are thrilled that people enjoying our wonderful coastline and countryside have been even more respectful this year.

“Obviously the pandemic resulted in record numbers of visitors to our region and with that came a number of problems caused by a minority of visitors including litter, wildlife being disturbed and farmers finding their gates blocked due to irresponsible parking.

“We created the Love it Like It’s Yours campaign in an attempt to welcome visitors but also educate them on the Countryside Code.

"It’s amazing to see the results and we are so happy that local businesses and residents backed it.

"Reports from all of our partners from Visit Northumberland to Northumberland National Park to Forestry UK have been incredibly positive.”

Alex MacLennan, Forestry England recreation public affairs manager for Northumberland, added: “We feel the campaign to Love Northumberland Like It’s Yours is an important message to visitors and also supports the rural communities we all work and live in and want to protect.

“We want to take the opportunity to thank locals and visitors who got behind the campaign… it has certainly worked!

“Even though we were hit badly with Storm Arwen and endured a heatwave, incidents such as littering have been few and far between and we’ve noticed a marked improvement in general behaviour, especially in Kielder Forest and Water Park.”

Andrew Fox, chairman of Visit Northumberland, added: “We are so proud of the campaign and are overjoyed that it seems to have worked.

"Even looking at the Visit Northumberland web stats, we know that people were taking our advice of planning ahead - especially when it came to checking tide times at Holy Island.”