Cultural Heritage 12
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CULTURAL HERITAGE 12 CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................ 12-1 Methodology .......................................................................................................... 12-2 Scope and sources of baseline data ................................................................... 12-2 Sources .............................................................................................................. 12-3 Detailed assessment of indirect impacts ............................................................. 12-3 Legislation and planning policies ............................................................................ 12-7 Legislation .......................................................................................................... 12-7 Planning Policy ................................................................................................... 12-9 Baseline conditions .............................................................................................. 12-10 The application site........................................................................................... 12-10 Nature and date of designated heritage assets ................................................. 12-10 The nature and date of locally-listed (HER) sites .............................................. 12-10 Synthesis: the historic landscape ...................................................................... 12-12 Assessment of impacts ........................................................................................ 12-16 Description of the proposed scheme ................................................................ 12-16 Unmitigated impacts ......................................................................................... 12-17 Proposed mitigation .......................................................................................... 12-17 Residual impacts .............................................................................................. 12-17 Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 12-22 CULTURAL HERITAGE 12 INTRODUCTION 12.1 This section of the ES provides an assessment of the significance of the impact which the proposed development, which has been described in Section 3 above, would have on cultural heritage features. 12.2 The term ‘cultural heritage’ comprises many different elements of the historic environment. These are principally below-ground and above-ground archaeological remains, historic buildings and conservation areas, together with their settings, but can also include intangible aspects, such as associations with famous people or cultural perceptions; sacred sites and place-names: customs and craft industries; where appropriate to the scope of the study. Impacts on cultural heritage may be direct (for example, physical removal of archaeological remains during excavation) or indirect (for example visual impact of a scheme on the settings of nearby designated heritage assets). Impacts may be beneficial or detrimental, and short-term or long- term. 12.3 Amongst the complete range of cultural heritage elements, the term ‘designated heritage assets’ is used in this section to cover the following: world heritage sites; scheduled monuments; listed buildings; registered parks and gardens; registered battlefields; and conservation areas. 12.4 SLR is a registered organisation with the Institute for Archaeologists (IfA), and work has been carried out where relevant for the baseline study according to the IfA Standard and Guidance for Archaeological Desk-Based Assessments (2001). 12.5 The archaeology and cultural heritage assessment within this section is structured as follows: a brief description of the legislation, national guidance and planning policies applying to the cultural heritage elements addressed in this assessment; details of the methodology used in this assessment; description of the baseline data relating to the site and vicinity; description of the scheme and mitigation of impact; residual impact following mitigation; and conclusions. Kingswood ERF – Volume 3 12-1 SLR Consulting Limited CULTURAL HERITAGE 12 METHODOLOGY Scope and sources of baseline data 12.6 Legislation and national planning guidance, and regional and local planning policies require consideration of potential impacts on the historic environment from new development in two main categories: direct impacts through physical modification, and indirect impacts on settings of nationally- designated heritage assets and others of national importance which have no national designation. 12.7 The starting point of this part of the EIA has therefore been the mapping of designated heritage assets within 5km of the application site. 12.8 Almost all these assets proved to be of medieval or post-medieval date down to the 19th century (with two exceptions). Acquisition of further data has been focused on providing sufficient information to characterise their contemporary settings and assess the degree of change in their surroundings which has occurred since their construction. 12.9 In addition, data sources have therefore been acquired to assess whether there are any other locally-listed sites which are currently without such designation but still of national importance. 12.10 Analysis of the function and relationships between the assets has been carried out in order to identify any particular relationships between individual designated heritage assets (such as manor house and church in the same village), or designated heritage assets with a particular intended long distance outlook (such as prospect towers). 12.11 The designated heritage assets potentially subject to indirect impact have then been subjected to desk-based impact assessment including ZTV analysis, historic and modern mapping and satellite imagery showing surface features and relief 1. 12.12 Following detailed assessment of those within 2km, it was concluded that there would be a negligible level of impact from the proposed scheme, and that there were no other long-distance specific relationships between those assets and any other more distant from the application site. The level of impact indicated by the desk-based assessment has suggested that site inspection would be unnecessary and site inspection has therefore not been carried out. 12.13 The extensive extraction which has occurred throughout the application site will have removed all physical remains of historic assets which might have existed there. There could thus be no direct impact on any historic assets from the proposed scheme, and there has been no attempt to assess the potential for unknown sites to have existed within the application site. 1 Google earth, accessed on 10th January 2010. Kingswood ERF – Volume 3 12-2 SLR Consulting Limited CULTURAL HERITAGE 12 Sources 12.14 The baseline data gathered includes extracts from the Staffordshire Historic Environment Record (‘HER’), Ordnance Survey mapping and on-line satellite imagery, and earlier mapping held at the Staffordshire Record Office and elsewhere, and published historical works of synthesis. 12.15 Locations and descriptions of designated heritage assets have been obtained from a variety of sources2. 12.16 Details of conservation areas have been obtained from Cannock Chase District Council3: 12.17 For clarity in this section, the designation number of the following types of asset have been prefixed as follows: HER - HER sites; LB - listed buildings; and SM - scheduled monuments 12.18 Designated heritage assets within 5km of the application site and HER sites within 2km are described in summary in Appendix 12/1. Detailed assessment of indirect impacts 12.19 Impacts upon cultural heritage resources may be categorised in a number of ways. Direct impacts are those which involve physical removal or alteration of the fabric of the feature. Indirect impacts are those which affect the setting of the feature, i.e. those elements of its surroundings which contribute to its special historical or archaeological interest/importance. Positive / negative impacts enhance / detract from the special archaeological or historical importance of the feature. Impacts may be short term, long term or permanent. 12.20 Each impact is quantified in terms of the significance of the impact, a product of the magnitude of the impact of the development and the sensitivity of the feature. The magnitude is itself a product of the scale and the nature of the development, while the sensitivity is dependent upon the importance or heritage value of the feature. 12.21 Visual impact assessment for any particular designated heritage asset, or group of such assets, has been based on the identification of the key viewpoints from where the special qualities of the asset and its setting may best be seen and appreciated. 12.22 The likely scale of impact on the views to or from the proposed asset has been assessed initially using the ZTV (zone of theoretical visibility) analysis 2 Locations of assets at http://services.english-heritage.org.uk/NMRDataDownload; detailed descriptions at http://www.magic.gov.uk. and http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway. 3 Obtained from Cannock Chase Interactive mapping at http://mapping.cannockchasedc.com Kingswood ERF – Volume 3 12-3 SLR Consulting Limited CULTURAL HERITAGE 12 presented in detail in the Landscape and Visual Assessment section (Section 7 of