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What is Landscape Character?
The concept has been around since the early 1990s, and has been pursued and implemented by some local planning authorities in the United Kingdom since then. Most planning authorities had been awaiting further guidance, which was published in 1999 jointly by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Countryside Agency, and finalised in 2002.
In England the Countryside Agency is currently driving the initiative. Landscape Character recognises that a complex range of factors have created and shaped our landscapes, and that there are fundamental differences between localities that may appear to be of a similar type. Eg. Dartmoor and Exmoor are upland areas, yet have different patterns of vegetation. Cannock Chase and the Hampshire Heathlands are similar habitats, but local conditions vary greatly.
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What is the thinking behind Landscape Character?
The Countryside Agency strategy “Towards Tomorrow`s Countryside” (2001) says they will:
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Conserve and enhance England`s countryside
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Help deliver development (that)…respects the distinctiveness and diversity… (that) are what people value about the countryside
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Promote the adoption of Countryside Character
(NB. We now refer to Landscape rather than Countryside Character, the former being the contemporary term, and to avoid confusion)
Planning Policy Statement 1: Delivering Sustainable Development (PPS1) states that in preparing development plans, planning authorities should…“Enhance as well as protect biodiversity, natural habitats, the historic environment and landscape and townscape character.”
Planning Policy Statement 7: Sustainable Development in Rural Areas (PPS7) says that local planning authorities should prepare policies and guidance that provide a positive framework for facilitating sustainable development in the countryside, and that the wider countryside is protected and where possible, enhanced.
Landscape Character is promoted as a useful tool in the sustainable development process. It is not to be confused with landscape designations such as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or Special Landscape Areas. These designations place a value on landscape quality and have been used for many years in protecting our better areas of countryside from development.
The former Countryside Commission (succeeded by the Countryside Agency) produced the Character of England Map in 1996. This is based on a number of factors such as topography, soils, geology, vegetation, agricultural and settlement patterns. It provides a national picture of different localities, and was intended for use in a wide range of applications, such as government policy, regional planning, agri-environment schemes, highway planning etc.
The Character Map for England identified Character Areas, including two in the Babergh District, (known as Level 1). These are the South Suffolk and North Essex Claylands and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Character Areas. Each Character Area has a profile explaining their salient features. These detailed profiles can be found on the Countryside Agency website http://www.countryside.gov.uk/
For local planning authorities, the next step was to apply these principles at a lower level, including through Local Plans and making use of it in the Development Control process. This is where Landscape Character Assessment comes in.
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Principles of Landscape Character Assessment
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Emphasis is on landscape character, rather than landscape quality
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Detailed analysis helps to build up an informative picture of an area
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Recognition of objective and subjective aspects
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Need for application at different scales
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Stakeholder participation
There is still work to do and in Suffolk the local planning authorities are carrying out surveys in order to produce a Landscape Character Assessment of the whole county. This uses the Character Areas as a baseline, and consultants retained by the local authorities have broken these down into Landscape Description Units (LDUs, or Level 2). The ongoing survey work is putting the flesh on the bones of the LDUs, in order to provide a more detailed descriptions of the landscape. Detailed maps and survey sheets are used to help this process.
The survey looks at a large number of factors that have an impact on landscape character. These include, for example, soils, landform, land cover, historic pattern, views, impact of development and condition. Landscape Character Types (LCT) will be drawn up in the next stage of the process.
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What are the proposed outcomes?
So far we have the Character Areas, and new Local Plan policies that compel us to take Landscape Character into consideration as part of our work. How can this be done, especially if there is little information to go on?
The ongoing Landscape Character Assessment is intended to inform the continuing process of drafting planning policies and dealing with planning applications. How this will happen in Suffolk will depend on the individual local planning authority. The intention is to complete the survey work by the end of 2005 and put all the information on a website, that can be used by local planning authorities, other agencies, consultants and local communities in matters affecting their local landscapes.
Here in Babergh we are slightly ahead of the game, as work was previously carried out for a Landscape Assessment of the District. With the advent of Landscape Character this older type of assessment was temporarily put on hold, but it is anticipated that the revised Landscape Character Assessment and Action Programme of the Babergh District will fit the bill, and provide sound advice on proposals affecting the landscape.
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What can we expect to see?
The new, revised Landscape Character Assessment and Action Programme will be the next step in the process of applying the principles of Landscape Character, which is to formulate Landscape Guidelines for the District. Information will be given on existing features that should be taken into consideration when determining planning applications, and it will ultimately be possible to measure the impact of a proposal on Landscape Character.
What about landscape designations, such as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Special Landscape Areas?
AONBs are here to stay, as PPS7 indicates. A clear message coming out is that local landscape designations will not be needed in future, and that Landscape Character is to be employed instead. We still have Special Landscape Areas, and will have to wait and see what the Inspectors Report on the revised Local Plan says. This is expected in November 2005. The finalised PPS7 will also clarify the way ahead but strong representations have been made to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for local designations to remain.
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