On their way up to Higger Tor to have a birthday BBQ.
None of them had seen the ‘no fires / no bbq’s’ signs. And i believe them. When asked to not have a bbq there they packed everything up and walked off the Tor and – when shown the 4 signs on the gate they had used – all said they hadn’t seen them.
Polite. Apologetic. Funny. Keen to find somewhere where they could have a little celebration and cook some food outdoors.
What are the genuinely ‘important’ messages that we need people to receive about the countryside (or anywhere for that matter), and how do ‘we’ ‘transmit’ those messages via a medium and in words and a language that influences decisions and changes behaviours.
What if in periods of High and Very High (on the @metoffice Fire Severity Index) fire risk any mobile phone entering a Protected Landscape received a short SMS ?
What if simple fire prevention messaging could be orchestrated across the top 50 outdoor influencers (of all ages, genders and religions) in the UK (probably reaching multi-million outdoor users).
An annual ‘Wildfire Awareness & Prevention Day’ ?And several other ideas too.
Because signs don’t work. They really don’t. Sometimes because they’re seen and ignored but moreover because they’re simply not seen regardless of their style, size and location. I’ve spent literally hundreds of hours watching humans go through gates and do the very thing that there are signs on the gate asking them not to do.
There is no specific demographic that they all conveniently fit in to either – which further complicates the messaging effort.
Is there just too much information in daily life which makes it nigh on impossible to ‘force’ the genuinely important messaging through the terrabytes of guff ?
Are ‘we’ just wasting our time fixing bigger and brighter and blunter signs and banners to fences and gates in the vain hope that they’ll influence actions ?
And as a last thought, where can a bunch of lads light a bbq outdoors for their friends birthday and have a lovely sociable couple of hours at sunset ? If there’s thousands of acres where you can’t do something does there need to be some appropriate places that you can ………….. ?