Wellington Heath Neighbourhood Development Plan Landscape Sensitivity and Capacity Assessment REPORT On behalf of Wellington Heath Parish Council September 2016 Carly Tinkler CMLI * 46 Jamaica Road Malvern WR14 1TU * [email protected] * 07711 538854 Wellington Heath NDP Landscape Assessment Report September 2016 Document Version Control Version Date Author Comment Draft V1 01.07.16 CT ‘Working version’ issued for preliminary comment Draft V2 12.07.16 CT Updated and issued for comments Draft V3 23.09.16 CT Updated following comments: final draft issue Final 23.10.16 CT Updated following comments: final issue Carly Tinkler CMLI Wellington Heath NDP Landscape Assessment Report September 2016 Contents Page number Foreword Acronyms 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Scope of the Commission 1 1.3 Qualifications and Experience 2 1.4 Structure of Report 2 2 Method and Process 4 2.1 Landscape Assessment Methods 4 2.2 Wellington Heath Assessment Approach 6 3 Baseline Landscape and Visual Situation 9 3.1 Overview of Designations, Receptors and Features 9 3.2 National Designations and Features 9 3.3 National and Countywide Landscape Character 11 3.4 Historic Landscape Character 12 3.5 Local Landscape Character 19 3.6 Biodiversity 52 3.7 Visual Amenity 54 3.8 Public and Social Amenity 58 3.9 Green Infrastructure 64 4 Summary of Findings 65 4.1 Landscape Quality 65 4.2 Landscape Character Sensitivity 65 4.3 Visual Sensitivity 66 4.4 Potential Effects 67 4.5 Key Constraints 69 5 Overall Sensitivity and Capacity 70 5.1 Overall Sensitivity 70 5.2 Landscape Value 70 5.3 Landscape Capacity 70 6 Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations 73 6.1 Summary and Conclusions 73 6.2 Recommendations and Future Initiatives 74 Tables Table A1: Capacity of Parcels in order of Assessment 72 Table A2: Parcels in order of Capacity (High to Low) 72 Appendices (bound separately) Appendix A: Technical Overview and Definitions of Terms Appendix B: Summary Descriptions of National Character Areas and County Landscape Types Appendix C: Landscape Assessment Tables of Criteria Appendix D: LSCA Process Flowchart Appendix E: LSCA Parcel Schedule Summaries Appendix F: Plans and Figures (see below) Carly Tinkler CMLI Wellington Heath NDP Landscape Assessment Report September 2016 Figures (bound separately) Figure 1: Location Plan and Overview Figure 2: LSCA Study Area Figure 3: LSCA Landscape Baseline Figure 4: LSCA Visual Baseline Figure 5: LSCA Capacity Plan NOTE: The figures are best read when printed at A3 size, but should also be legible at A4 for most people. Carly Tinkler CMLI Wellington Heath NDP Landscape Assessment Report September 2016 Foreword to the Report In the UK today there is an urgent need to build new homes. In 2007 the Government set a target of increasing the supply of housing to 240,000 additional homes per year by 2016. The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (now defunct) advised that up to 290,500 additional homes may be needed in each year to 2031 (at the time of writing, the Government had subsequently abolished national and regional planning housebuilding targets). HBF and Glenigan’s March 2016 Housing Pipeline report1 shows that planning permissions for 242,819 homes were granted in England during the third quarter of 2015, representing an upward trend; however, there is no certainty that this will continue. As a result, almost every city, town and village in the country is under pressure to find suitable sites for future residential development (Wellington Heath’s local planning authority (Herefordshire Council) has set a target of at least twenty-eight new dwellings to be built in the parish during the plan period 2011 – 2031). This landscape assessment was commissioned by Wellington Heath Parish Council in June 2015. Its purpose was to determine the potential capacity of 29 parcels of land in and around the settlement to accept new residential development, from a landscape and environmental perspective. The findings are being used to guide Wellington Heath’s Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) for the plan period up to 2031, and will help in fulfilling the local community’s ‘vision’ for the parish (which is ‘to safeguard our rural environment and to enhance our community through managed development…’), and the associated environmental objectives (which include preserving the rural character of the village and its lanes, ensuring that new development is sustainable, and complements the existing landscape setting, and that it does not have a significant detrimental effect on the environment). The assessment’s findings will also be used to assist with determining the line of the future village settlement boundary, as the NDP process allows communities to determine this so long as the decisions take into account the results and analyses of objective, evidence-based studies, surveys and consultations, and demonstrate compliance with planning policy. A settlement boundary is defined as the dividing line or boundary between areas of built / urban development (the settlement) and non-urban or rural development (the countryside). Boundaries are usually drawn around whatever is determined to be the integral core of a settlement. Typically included within them are built form and land associated with existing employment areas, community facilities and services, and the bulk of a settlement’s ‘housing stock’, including any sites identified as potentially suitable for housing. Land outside them is defined as ‘open countryside’ and is usually oriented towards agriculture, tourism and / or outdoor recreational uses, although it may include parts of gardens, orchards, paddocks and other land not normally perceived as ‘countryside’. In planning terms there is a presumption in favour of built development within the settlement boundary whereas, beyond the boundary in open countryside, development is much more tightly controlled. The purpose of the settlement boundary is to act as a distinct, defensible line between these areas, determining where certain types of development may be acceptable or, where protection of land is required, for a wide variety of reasons. European conventions, national and local planning policy and various sources of guidance, make it clear that the protection and enhancement of landscape character and visual amenity are highly important factors in the decision- making process at all levels. Both are an essential component in deciding the future location of settlement boundaries, especially if, like parts of Wellington Heath, the landscape is nationally important, being designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Understanding the area’s history, value, character, and the contribution each individual parcel of land makes to that character, is a fundamental part of the process of understanding the effects of change on the landscape and those who use it. The health and wellbeing of both the community and the environment are also of paramount importance, and landscape makes a significant contribution to this. The issues involved in this study are complex, and a variety of published methods for landscape assessment have been combined in order to provide the fine-grained, evidence-based and objective results which are needed here. The full results are presented in this report, which supersedes the summary originally published in March 2016. It is important for those relying on the information to be able to clearly see how the conclusions were reached. Thus, the baseline studies have been written up in full, the methods used have been described in some detail, and an explanation of the main technical terms used has been given, in order to ensure that the process is fully understood. It is not necessary to read the entire report in order to find the levels of capacity and constraints which apply to each parcel: the results are shown on a plan (Figure 5), and are set out in the tables in Section 5 Overall Sensitivity and Capacity. The NDP process is extremely hard work, and many of those involved are local volunteers whose input, usually over a period of over several years often goes unrecognised. I am very grateful to everyone in Wellington Heath who generously provided their time, assistance, fascinating background information and on-the-ground knowledge, and invited me into their homes, all of which were invaluable to this study. Any errors in the text are likely to be mine, so if spotted, please let me know. Feedback can be via the Parish Council representatives, or directly to the author of this report ([email protected]). Thank you. Carly Tinkler September 2016 1 http://www.hbf.co.uk/library/publications-reports/housing-pipeline-report/ Carly Tinkler CMLI Wellington Heath NDP Landscape Assessment Report September 2016 Acronyms Below are the acronyms most frequently used in the landscape assessment report and schedules: ALC Agricultural Land Classification AOD Above Ordnance Datum AONB Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty AONBP Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership ASNW Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland BAP Biodiversity Action Plan BRC Biological Records Centre EIA Environmental Impact Assessment ELC European Landscape Convention EPS European Protected Species FS&D Forest Smallholdings and Dwellings GI Green Infrastructure GLVIA3 Guidance for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment 3rd Edition HC Herefordshire Council HE Historic England HER Historic Environment Record HLC Historic Landscape Characterisation HPI Habitat of Principal Importance LCA Landscape Character Assessment LCT Landscape