Landscape and Visual Assessment

WOODLANDS RETIREMENT VILLAGE Continuing Care Retirement Community LANDSCAPE AND VISUAL ASSESSMENT July 2016 Part 1 Jon Etchells Consulting Devonshire Business Centre Works Road Letchworth Herts SG6 1GJ 01462 488221 WOODLANDS RETIREMENT VILLAGE Continuing Care Retirement Community LANDSCAPE AND VISUAL ASSESSMENT October 2013 amended July 2016 C O N T E N T S Page 1. Introduction and Methodology 1 2. The Baseline Situation 4 3. The Proposed Development 38 4. Landscape and Visual Effects 41 5. Summary and Conclusions 49 Appendix A ~ Methodology Figures: Following Page Figure 1 Location Plan 1 4 Figure 2 Aerial Photograph and Photograph Viewpoints 38 Drawing JEC/344/01 Illustrative Landscape Proposals 44 Figure 3 Visual Envelope and Photograph Viewpoints 1. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY 1.1 General 1.1.1 This report has been prepared for Woodlands Retirement Village Limited (WRVL) in connection with the proposed development of a site at ‘Brickfields’, on the south western edge of Hertford for a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC). CCRCs are intended to provide a flexible range of care options for older people, catering for both the fit and those needing support. The site lies within the administrative area of East Herts District Council (EHDC). 1.1.2 This site lies around 1km to the south west of the centre of Hertford, on the site of a former brickworks and immediately to the west of the London to Hertford North railway line, which is elevated as it passes across the valleys of the River Mimram and River Lea (see Figure 1). The Cole Green Way (a pedestrian and cycle route linking Hertford with Welwyn Garden City, along a former railway line) runs to the north of the site, and there is an extensive (but currently disused) area of greenhouses and a small group of houses immediately to the west. 1.1.3 The south western quadrant of Hertford has remained largely undeveloped, presumably as a result of the presence of the two rivers and also the severing effect of the railway embankment. As a result, the Metropolitan Green Belt extends across the area of the site (including the nursery to the east) and to the east of the railway line to the edge of the main built-up area. The area of and around the site is also shown as a ‘Hertford Green Finger’ on the Local Plan Proposals Map (see section 2.5 below). The site is largely covered in woodland and pasture of varying character and quality, and is subject to an area Tree Preservation Order (TPO). 1.1.4 The site itself has no current productive use, and has in places been subject to tipping and other forms of unauthorised use such as lighting of fires and construction of jumps for BMX and mountain bikes. 1.1.5 The purpose of this report is to provide information on the character and quality of the landscape of and around the site, and the likely landscape and visual effects which would result from development of the site for a CCRC, in order to assist EHDC with their consideration of the outline planning application for the development. Woodlands Retirement Village 1 Landscape and Visual Assessment N The Proposed Site Based upon the Ordnance Survey map with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, Crown Copyright reserved. Licence Number 100031592. Woodlands Retirement Village Proposed Continuing Care Retirement Community Landscape and Visual Assessment Not to Scale Jon Etchells Consulting Figure 1 ~ Location Plan 1.1.6 The assessment of potential landscape and visual effects has been undertaken by Jon Etchells Consulting (JEC) - a Hertfordshire based practice registered with the Landscape Institute, with extensive experience of landscape design and assessment. 1.2 Methodology 1.2.1 In landscape and visual assessments, a distinction is normally drawn between landscape effects (i.e. effects on the character or quality of the landscape, irrespective of whether there are any views of the landscape, or viewers to see them) and visual effects (i.e. effects on people’s views of the landscape, principally from residential properties, but also from public rights of way and other areas with public access). Thus, a development may have extensive landscape effects but few visual effects (if, for example, there are no properties or public viewpoints), or few landscape effects but significant visual effects (if, for example, the landscape is already degraded or the development is not out of character with it, but can clearly be seen from many residential properties). 1.2.2 The methodology followed is as set out in the ‘Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment’, produced jointly by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment and the Landscape Institute (‘the GLVIA’, 1995, revised 2002 and 2013). This guidance is on the principles and process of assessment, and stresses that the detailed approach adopted should be appropriate to the task in hand. The judgements made as part of the assessment were based on the tables set out in Appendix A. The document ‘Landscape Character Assessment, Guidance for England and Scotland, 2002’ (The Countryside Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage) also stresses the need for a holistic assessment of landscape character, including physical, biological and social factors. 1.2.3 All photographs were taken in the period from April to October 2013, so it has been possible to see the site both before deciduous vegetation was in full leaf and also during the summer and early autumn, when vegetation is in leaf and views tend to be more restricted. 1.2.4 Visibility during the site visits was either moderate or good (by definitions set out on the Met Office website, i.e. visibility was either 4 to 10km or, in most cases, 10 to 20km, though visibility is not an important consideration in this case, as most views are short distance only). Woodlands Retirement Village 2 Landscape and Visual Assessment 1.3 Structure of this Report 1.3.1 Section 2 of this report describes the baseline situation in terms of the existing site and the character and quality of the surrounding landscape. Section 3 describes the presently anticipated form of the proposed development, and section 4 sets out the landscape and visual effects likely to result from it. A summary and conclusions are provided in section 5. Woodlands Retirement Village 3 Landscape and Visual Assessment 2. THE BASELINE SITUATION 2.1 Landscape Context Site Location and Boundaries 2.1.1 The proposed site is on the south western edge of Hertford, around 1km from the town centre, with the village of Hertingfordbury around 0.8km to the west. The site occupies a roughly rectangular area of around 5ha, and the boundaries are as follow (see Figure 2): The northern boundary runs alongside the Cole Green Way, which follows the route of a former railway line, and is set around 2m below levels within the site, with a post and wire fence along the crest of the cutting slope marking the site boundary (see photographs 23 and 24). There is dense vegetation along each side of the Cole Green Way, and that within the site is mainly hawthorn at lower levels, with sycamore, oak and ash trees, and some hornbeam. The eastern boundary runs alongside the tall embankment (with a brick built viaduct at its northern end) of the London to Hertford North railway line - this is around 10 to 12m above the surrounding land, and is a locally dominant landscape feature (see photographs 25 and 28). There is a strained wire fence separating the site from an area of flat land at the foot of the embankment, and this area is partially open, with some developing rose, hawthorn and blackthorn scrub. On the embankment itself there is developing scrub with hawthorn and some oak. The eastern part of the southern site boundary is a rectangular field of pasture (see photographs 31 and 32). In the centre of the southern boundary there is an area of woodland extending to the south to connect with Terrace Wood. The western part of the southern boundary runs within a narrow finger of woodland extending to the west from the main part of the site; trees here are mainly sycamore with some oak. The western boundary is marked by a low chain link fence between the site and an extensive area of glasshouses and other nursery buildings to the west (see photographs 33 and 34). Existing Land Use and Vegetation Within the Site 2.1.2 The site is disused, and was formerly used as a brickworks. The former use can still be seen from the series of rectangular lagoons in the south western part of the site, together Woodlands Retirement Village 4 Landscape and Visual Assessment Railway viaduct Cole Green Way N 26 Cole Green Way Farm 27 39 28 Hertingfordbury Park 22 Cole Green Way 23 19 20 14 21 24 Existing open area within site 18 25 Line of public footpath 16 1 17 35 36 15 2 3 4 Nursery 5 11 7-9 12, 13 6 31 32 34 10 33 Note that locations for photographs 29, 30, 37, 38 and 40-43 are shown on Figure 3. Woodlands Retirement Village Proposed Continuing Care Retirement Community 14 Photograph viewpoints, and direction of view where appropriate (locations within the woodland are approximate). Landscape and Visual Assessment Not to Scale Jon Etchells Consulting Figure 2 ~ Aerial Photograph and Photograph Viewpoints with some brick structures, and also other excavations along the southern side of the site (see photographs 1 to 8). It is understood that it has also been subject to some landfill operations (with waste brought to the site along the railway line to the north) to fill in the voids remaining from clay excavation.

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