Biodiversity enhancement All development should seek opportunities to enhance biodiversity. Major development in particular must include measures to deliver biodiversity gains through opportunities to restore, enhance and create valuable habitats, ecological networks and ecosystem services. Such enhancement measures will contribute to the objectives and targets of the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) or River Basin/ Catchment Management Plan, particularly through landscape scale projects, and be relevant to the local landscape character.

Local sites Sustainable development will avoid direct and indirect impacts upon local sites through sensitive site location and layout, and by maintaining suffi cient buffers and ecological connectivity with the wider environment. Damage or disturbance to local sites will generally be unacceptable, other than in exceptional circumstances where it has been demonstrated that such impacts:

i. cannot reasonably be avoided

ii. are reduced as far as possible

iii. are outweighed by other planning considerations in the public interest

iv. where appropriate compensation measures can be secured through planning obligations or agreements.

Development proposals affecting local sites must make a reasonable contribution to their favourable management in the long-term.

Core Policy 51: Landscape

6.79 The European Landscape Convention promotes landscape protection, management and planning, and applies to all landscapes, towns and villages, as well as open countryside; the coast and inland areas; and ordinary or even degraded landscapes, as well as those that are afforded protection. Development on the edges of towns and villages will be broadly controlled in line with Core Policy 3 (Delivery Strategy). However the principal pressure on the landscape arising from new development is erosion of the separate identity, character, visual and functional amenity of settlements and their setting, and impacts on the open countryside. Another

264 challenge is to allow for appropriate development while having full regard to the conservation and enhancement objectives of the most highly valued landscapes including the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), National Park (NFNP) and the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site (WHS).

6.80 Core Policy 51 seeks to protect, conserve and enhance ’s distinctive landscape character. The term ‘landscape’ here is used to refer to the built, historic and natural environment in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. There are currently 10 Landscape Character Assessments (LCAs) which cover Wiltshire, and these will be used for the purposes of implementing this policy until they are replaced:

• Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment (1:50,000) (2005)

• North Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment (1:25,000) (2004)

• South Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment (1:25,000) (2008)

• Kennet Landscape Character Assessment (1:25,000) (1999) and adopted Kennet Landscape Conservation Strategy (2005)

• West Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment (1:25,000) (2007)

• AONB Landscape Character Assessment (1:25,000) (2002)

• AONB Landscape Character Assessment (1:50,000) (2004)

• Chase and Landscape Character Assessment (1:25,000) (2003)

• Integrated Landscape Character Assessment (1:25,000) (2009)

• Training Area Landscape Character Assessment (1:25,000) (2003).

Work will be undertaken with these LCAs and the AONB Management Plans to establish a Landscape Strategy for Wiltshire early 2015.

6.81 Other relevant assessments and studies which would include:

• those which are professionally prepared to best practice guidelines e.g. landscape sensitivity studies and historic landscape characterisation work

• local studies which are approved by the council e.g. village design statements, parish plans. 265 Applications for development which would by its nature, scale, appearance or location have the potential to change local landscape character must be accompanied by a Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment.

6.82 The national signifi cance of the landscape of Wiltshire is acknowledged in the designation of 44% of the area administered by Wiltshire Council as an AONB while a small area of the New Forest National Park is also present within the south of the county. When determining proposals in AONBs and the New Forest National Park, great weight will be given to conserving landscape and scenic beauty in accordance with paragraphs 115 and 116 of the NPPF. Particular attention is also drawn to paragraph 14 (including footnote 9), which restricts the presumption in favour of sustainable development in such areas. However, Core Policy 51 also addresses development outside these areas which could affect the setting of these highly valued landscapes. The current management plans for these areas are as follows:

• and West Wiltshire Downs AONB Management Plan

2009-2014105

• North Wessex Downs AONB Management Plan 2009-2014106

• Cotswolds AONB Management Plan 2013-2018

• New Forest Management Plan 2010-2015.

6.83 Proposals for development within or affecting the AONBs or NFNP should demonstrate that they have taken account of the objectives, policies and actions set out in those current or any other revised or replacement management plans. Other documents prepared by the AONBs or NFNP may also be relevant, including position statements, woodland and biodiversity strategies, landscape sensitivity and tranquillity studies, and the landscape character assessments listed above. Development affecting the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site and its setting should be considered in light of Core Policy 59, while any development in the setting of the Bath World Heritage Site should have regard to the fi ndings of the Bath World Heritage Site Setting Study (2009) and any associated supplementary planning document as a material planning consideration.

6.84 Core Policy 51 refers to development within the setting of an AONB or national park; setting is considered to be all of the surroundings from which a designated landscape can be experienced, or which can be experienced from the designated landscape. Its extent is not fi xed and may change as the landscape and its surroundings evolve. 266 Elements of a setting may make a positive or negative contribution to the natural beauty of a landscape, and may affect the ability to appreciate it.

6.85 There is a need to protect the distinct character and identity of the villages and settlements in Wiltshire, and a particular issue has been highlighted in those parts of the Royal Wootton Bassett and Community Area which adjoin the administrative area of Swindon Borough Council, where there may be additional development pressure. The separate identity of these settlements should be protected in line with Core Policy 51. The local community may also wish to consider this matter further in any future community-led plan, such as a neighbourhood plan.

6.86 The emerging Wiltshire Landscape Strategy will review the need for Special Landscape Areas (SLAs) in Wiltshire and, if necessary, also clarify their special characteristics and boundaries. In the interim they will continue to be protected under relevant saved local plan policies, and if evidence demonstrates the need for SLAs these policies will be superseded by a Wiltshire-wide policy.

6.87 The extent of the Western Wiltshire Green Belt is shown on the policies map. The purpose of the Green Belt is to check the expansion of towns in the area, principally Bristol and Bath, and to safeguard surrounding countryside, and its particular objectives are to:

• maintain the open character of undeveloped land adjacent to Bath, Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon

• prevent the coalescence of Bradford on Avon with Trowbridge or the villages to the east of Bath

• limit the spread of development along the A4 between Batheaston and Corsham

• protect the setting and historic character of Bradford on Avon.

Applications for development within the Green Belt will be determined in accordance with national planning policy.

267 Core Policy 51

Landscape

Development should protect, conserve and where possible enhance landscape character and must not have a harmful impact upon landscape character, while any negative impacts must be mitigated as far as possible through sensitive design and landscape measures. Proposals should be informed by and sympathetic to the distinctive character areas identifi ed in the relevant Landscape Character Assessment(s) and any other relevant assessments and studies. In particular, proposals will need to demonstrate that the following aspects of landscape character have been conserved and where possible enhanced through sensitive design, landscape mitigation and enhancement measures:

i. The locally distinctive pattern and species composition of natural features such as trees, hedgerows, woodland, fi eld boundaries, watercourses and waterbodies.

ii. The locally distinctive character of settlements and their landscape settings.

iii. The separate identity of settlements and the transition between man-made and natural landscapes at the urban fringe.

iv. Visually sensitive skylines, soils, geological and topographical features.

v. Landscape features of cultural, historic and heritage value.

vi. Important views and visual amenity.

vii. Tranquillity and the need to protect against intrusion from light pollution, noise, and motion.

viii. Landscape functions including places to live, work, relax and recreate.

ix. Special qualities of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and the New Forest National Park, where great weight will be afforded to conserving and enhancing landscapes and scenic beauty.

Proposals for development within or affecting the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), New Forest National Park (NFNP) or Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site (WHS) shall demonstrate that they have taken account of the

268 objectives, policies and actions set out in the relevant Management Plans for these areas. Proposals for development outside of an AONB that is suffi ciently prominent (in terms of its siting or scale) to have an impact on the area’s special qualities (as set out in the relevant management plan), must also demonstrate that it would not adversely affect its setting.

Core Policy 52: Green infrastructure

6.88 Green infrastructure is a descriptive term used to characterise spaces such as parks and gardens (urban and country parks, formal gardens); amenity green space (informal and formal recreation and sports spaces, domestic gardens, village greens, green roofs); urban green spaces (urban commons, waste land and disturbed ground); woodland, and meadows, wetlands, open and running water, quarries; green corridors (rivers and canals including their banks, road and rail corridors, cycling routes, pedestrian paths, and rights of way); allotments, cemeteries, and churchyards. It provides socio-economic and cultural benefi ts which underpin individual and community health and wellbeing. These include: conserving and enhancing the natural environment; providing wildlife corridors; reducing noise and air pollution; and helping communities adapt to climate change through water and carbon management. In urban areas, functions include providing routes (e.g. footpaths and cycleways) which link areas of open space within settlements; providing sustainable drainage, fl ood storage and urban cooling; and providing a wide range of opportunities for engagement and active citizenship, relaxation and quiet contemplation, sport, recreation and children’s play.

6.89 The maintenance and enhancement of Wiltshire’s green infrastructure network will be crucial in helping to ensure that the growth set out in this Core Strategy can be delivered in a sustainable manner. In particular, the development proposed in 269