North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Annual Review 2018 - 2019 INTRODUCTION

About the North Chair’s welcome Wessex Downs Welcome to the Annual Review 2018-2019 for the North Wessex The Area of Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Outstanding Natural Beauty is the Beauty. This report highlights our third largest of Britain’s 46 AONBs work over the year to conserve and received its status as a protected and enhance the natural beauty of landscape in 1972. the North Wessex Downs – for the The AONB lies at the apex of the chalk band which benefit of those living, working or stretches across from Lincolnshire to Kent. It covers 668 square miles (1,730 square kms), visiting the area as well as for the taking in 173 parishes including the market towns of benefit of the nation. and Marlborough, and reaching into four counties – , , Oxfordshire The year was one of major change for us. Having and . completed a structure review of the AONB The rolling chalk hills with their thin, well-drained soils, team earlier in the year, we then undertook a provide the ideal conditions for chalk grassland with recruitment programme which led to three new chalk-loving flowers, insects and rare butterflies. They staff joining between October and February. also give rise to internationally-rare chalk streams that Ann Shepley became our new Communications support some of the UK’s most threatened and fragile Officer in autumn 2018, and in February 2019 plants and animals as well as sustaining the beautiful Ewa Prokop began her role as Senior Project valleys of this landscape. Development & Fundraising Officer while Jacky Akam joined as our Project Officer. Despite our small team being somewhat depleted by staff vacancies for much of the year we have managed to undertake the five-yearly review of our management plan, contribute to the delivery of a major arts project at Basildon Park, and progress our planned work programme. We have much to be proud of. The AONB Partnership continues to face uncertainties resulting from the Brexit process and the immense challenges presented by the pressure for development within the AONB. Our ability to mitigate the pressures on the landscape and the environment relies on a much wider group, not only our funding partners, DEFRA and the nine local authorities, but also other members of the governing Council of Partners and Management Working Group as well numerous like-minded groups and individuals. Council of Partners We are hugely Conserving and enhancing the natural beauty grateful for your of the North Wessex Downs is the statutory continued support – responsibility of nine local authorities in thank you! Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. They come together with community, farming, conservation, tourism and heritage Ted Hiscocks representatives to make up a governing Council Chairman, North of Partners. Wessex Downs AONB The governing Council of Partners meets three Council of Partners times a year and the smaller Management Working Group four times a year.

2 North Wessex Downs AONB - Annual Review 2018-2019 MAKING CONNECTIONS

Life Cycles & Landscapes: Wayfaring Basildon Park, July 2018

Wayfaring - a major new of people coming landscape art commission inspired together and of by the chalk landscape and the paths crossing in ancient route of the Icknield Way that one place for which runs through the North a single night. Wessex Downs on its way from Dorset to Norfolk – lay at the As well as heart of this project developed Basildon Park in the North Wessex Downs, Wayfaring took in partnership by Activate (an • 3 educational factsheets outdoor art production company), place in three other locations in 2018: the Dutch island of produced - on veteran trees, the National Association for parkland and chalk landscapes AONBs and And Now: (artists), Terschelling as part of the Oerol Festival, and two other AONBs – - to inform and guide schools’ with a £367,000 grant from Arts and artists’ engagement in Council England. the Norfolk Coast (Wells next the Sea) and Dorset (Maiden Castle). the project Presented as a journey of • 13 school visits made to exploration, the artists created The North Wessex Downs event ran for a week in July in explain the project and structures made from materials enthuse pupils and staff available from the landscape that partnership with the National • 1 short film created of the audiences could move through, Trust, the Newbury Corn Exchange Icknield Way landscape in the investigate and contribute to. and 101 Outdoor Arts Creation North Wessex Downs They invited audiences to “step Space. We contributed in into the unknown”, to think about practical ways such as helping • 400 primary school children movement and migration: how we the artists find a suitable location, attended art workshops arrive at, understand, inhabit, and promoting the project and lending at Basildon Park involving leave a space. practical support in preparing the storytelling, art, nature, walks, installation itself as well landscape and exploration. On the final evenings, fire, music as getting directly involved and performance transformed the in the educational activities. installations in rousing celebrations Thanks to all for an extremely, thought provoking, interesting event.

© And Now, Photo - Nick Read

www.northwessexdowns.org.uk 3 MAKING CONNECTIONS

members who, between them, farm and manage 10,000 Farmer Clusters hectares where the catchments of the rivers Dun and the Shal Following a successful information event for farmers drain towards the Kennet in March 2017, we developed our Farmer Cluster in Hungerford. The group’s primary focus is on improving Development Project which aims to establish at water quality in the Dun and least three new farmer-led groups across the North Shal but members are also keen Wessex Downs, extending the success already to work together on a range of other environmental goals. achieved by Marlborough Downs Space for Nature In March 2019, the group and the Pewsey Downs Farmer Group. held its first event, hosted by David Lemon of Manor Farm In March 2018, we engaged Tim aims of forging closer links with in Wilton and George Hosier Clarke, an experienced local farm the area’s farming community. of Wexcombe Farm, looking at manager, advisor and Catchment The Southern Streams Farmer sediment run-off and trapping in Sensitive Farming Officer, to Group was established on 20th the upper catchment. lead this work for us and help November 2018 and has 20 us achieve one of our corporate We have also been exploring the potential for another farmer- led group along the Ridgeway National Trail running west from Bury Down in Oxfordshire. This links to an Oxford University PhD research project on techniques for managing the trail itself for biodiversity. A meeting in late 2018 showed considerable interest and development work is continuing.

Erosion and sediment under discussion at Wexcombe Farm

Future of Landscape and Farming in Focus …very at North Wessex Downs Annual Forum interesting and inspiring... Brexit and its possible effects on farming, landscapes and wildlife ...an excellent was the theme for our Annual Forum which took place at event... Rushall Farm near Bradfield in Berkshire in October 2018. Around 100 farmers, landowners, when it says it wants to shift public Denton-Thompson OBE, councillors, conservationists, farming support to paying for immediate past president of the residents and supporters attended “public money for public goods”. Landscape Institute; Peter Lemon, the event, hosted by the John Key speakers included Andy Guy local landowner and farmer; and Simonds Trust with support of LEAF (Linking Environment Chris Musgrave, local farmer and from our sponsors Doves Farm, And Farming), the farming and conservationist. Larkmead Farm Vets, Openfield environmental charity, who After a lunch of locally-sourced and SoilBioLab. addressed some of the big produce delegates took the With so many unknowns for questions facing sustainable land opportunity to take part in a farmers and the wider rural management, food production number of site visits looking community, the Forum was an and profitable farming. at woodland management, opportunity to discuss what Also speaking were Phil Jarvis catchment sensitive farming, the future might mean for the from the Game and Wildlife organic shared-enterprise landscape and wildlife, and just Conservation Trust; Merrick farming and local history. what the Government means

4 North Wessex Downs AONB - Annual Review 2018-2019 MAKING CONNECTIONS

The Great West Way The landscape looked Over 40 miles of the Great West Way run through beautiful with a fine dusting of snow, I bet in the the stunning landscape of the North Wessex Downs! summer with a carpet of pretty flowers on the downland and the The Great West Way is a new to support our local tourism butterflies fluttering around it is touring route, approximately industry. a sight to be seen too. 125 miles in length, which joins We had some input to the project up many iconic destinations and Great West in its development stage prior Way Blogger attractions along a corridor west to 2019 and have now joined of London through to Bristol. This the scheme as an Ambassador. project, led by Visit Wiltshire, is Benefits include the development one of a number made possible by of visitor itineraries for the North the Government’s £40m Discover Wessex Downs, focussing on the In March 2019 we took part in England Fund and is focused on great outdoors and history, which an “influencers” visit organised creating a world-class tourism are promoted through the Great by the Great West Way team in experience, winning new business West Way website and their travel which we took bloggers on a walk and market share for Britain and trade brochure. Furthermore, the to the Alton Barnes White Horse growing the visitor economy along North Wessex Downs is featured and the AONB was subsequently and around the route. The North in the newly-published “Rough included in their social media posts Wessex Downs AONB forms the Guide” and regularly mentioned and blogs. backdrop to much of the Great in Great West Way social media West Way so this presents us with content (which has an ever- an excellent opportunity to meet growing following of over 16K). our Management Plan objectives

DEFRA Awayday In November we were again delighted to host an awayday for DEFRA staff from Bristol and London. After their team meeting at Hungerford Town Hall, we hired the Flyer community minibus and took the group on a brief tour of the immediate area. This included a visit to the Salisbury Road site in Hungerford for a discussion about planning and housebuilding in AONBs, and a short walk on the downs at Walbury Hill / showcasing the restoration undertaken there by the Kirby Estate with support from Natural England and English Heritage.

www.northwessexdowns.org.uk 5 ENHANCING AND SUSTAINING

Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) Grants Taking the Past into the Future The SDF, which has been managed on our behalf by the North Wessex Downs Landscape Trust since Stonehenge and July 2017, provides funding for projects that support Avebury World the aims of the AONB Management Plan and bring Heritage Site (WHS) environmental, social and economic benefits to the We are actively developing North Wessex Downs AONB. our close links with the World Heritage Site by involvement This year through the SDF we helped six projects with grants totalling with this initiative, not only £16,000 which in turn attracted nearly £147,000 of cash and in-kind through match funding but match-funding contributions, including over 700 volunteer days. also by helping to steer the This year’s grants included: project as a member of the • A community club house for Chilton Foliat located within the grounds project board. of Chilton Foliat C of E Primary School with the potential to be used by The long-term aim of ‘Taking multiple groups including a toddler group, older people and providing the Past Into the Future’ is a home for the existing breakfast and after-school clubs to develop and establish • Replacement of the crumbling 90+ year-old Avebury sports pavilion a sustainable, resilient with a fit-for-purpose facility reflecting its dual use as a sports pavilion operating model capable of and community facility securing adequate funding for co-ordination across • A heritage information board at the WHS landscape and Ogbourne St Andrew Both the implementation of the • An on-line promotional video WHS Management Plan. the film and leaflets for the Pewsey Vale as well Supported by the WHS as walking and cycling have been extremely Partnership, the WHS leaflets to support the popular, encouraging visitors and Co-ordination Unit has area’s tourism industry residents alike to get outside and secured a £55,000 • Boxford History Project enjoy this fabulous countryside. Without grant from Heritage – a project to reveal this support, these projects just would not Lottery Fund’s Resilient the unique Boxford have happened - we are extremely lucky Heritage programme to mosaic part of which to have had this resource available and support this work. was originally discovered are extremely grateful to the North The work is due to be in 2017 by volunteers Wessex Downs for their support. completed in 2020. excavating the Roman villa at Mud Hole. Pewsey Vale Tourism Partnership Volunteers working on the Boxford Mosaic

6 North Wessex Downs AONB - Annual Review 2018-2019 ENHANCING AND SUSTAINING

North Wessex Downs LEADER Programme

The 2018-19 year was in tourism, dairy and arable farming, forestry, heritage, the a very busy one for the racing and equine sector, leisure, North Wessex Downs health and creative businesses as LEADER Programme. well as in rural services. They include: During the year, the Local Action Group (LAG) approved 24 projects • Ridgeway Racing Ltd – with a total of £899k grant a new flat gallop at Upper funding and since the start of the Herdswick, Barbury 2019-20 year the project budget • F Wells and Sons – a new has been fully committed. pod camping development Applications closed in early at Littleworth, Pewsey 2019 and grant contracts were • Uffington Parish Council – issued before the deadline of restoration work to the Old the end of June. Having made School Room some administrative savings and • David Harber Ltd, Ashton successfully bidding for a small Upthorpe – a workshop amount of additional funding extension the programme could commit • Crown Forestry, Ogbourne £1.621m to projects across the St Andrew – a mobile sawmill • Stowell Farms, Pewsey LAG area, which is broadly aligned – CowManager ear tag with the AONB. Total investment • April’s Farm, Upper monitoring (including match funding) will Enham, Andover – a new be £4.344m. Projects supported animal therapy centre for • C J Stokes at Coate, Devizes during the year in Wiltshire, West disadvantaged people – a Claydon Hybrid 3m drill Berkshire, Borough, • Biddesden House Farm • Redcrest Events Ltd, South Oxfordshire, Vale of the Partnership, Ludgershall – Leckhampstead – a new White Horse, Basingstoke and slurry separation and rainwater pole tent and facilities Deane and Test Valley have been management development.

© Sharyn Ladds

www.northwessexdowns.org.uk 7 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

The Designated Landscapes Review As part of DEFRA’s 25-Year Environment Plan there is a commitment to review the nation’s protected landscapes and this review started last year, led by a panel chaired by Julian Glover. We have fully-engaged with this process and, following a call for evidence, we submitted responses to the review on our own behalf, at a regional level as part of SEEPL (South East and East Dame Fiona Reynolds (R) at Bury Down, Oxfordshire with Sarah Wright, Ridgeway National Trail Project Officer Protected Landscapes) and nationally as part of the National Association for AONBs (NAAONB) response. The NAAONB is advocating that AONBs provide an excellent and ready framework in their management plans for prioritising and targeting ‘public money for public goods’ under the new land management procedures that will replace the Common Agricultural Policy upon leaving the EU. In January 2019 we hosted a visit from Dame Fiona Reynolds, a member of the Designated Landscapes Review panel. Accompanied by key AONB partners she visited a major development site, a LEADER-funded farm enterprise and the Ridgeway National Trail. We highlighted four main issues and opportunities for the Review: • the failure of national and local planning policy to adequately safeguard protected landscapes against the threat to their integrity from built development and the need for consistent AONB-wide planning • the scope to improve the governance of AONB partnerships to accentuate the national status of the designation • the potential of AONBs and their statutory Management Plans as a pre-existing framework for directing public investment in land management in their areas to secure public goods • the benefits AONBs bring in convening collaborative partnerships to pursue multiple objectives at a landscape scale.

© David Hall

8 North Wessex Downs AONB - Annual Review 2018-2019 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Corporate Strategy Review Management In 2016 the AONB’s Management Plan Review Working Group initiated a Corporate Section 89 of the Countryside and Strategy Review to examine options Rights of Way Act 2000 requires for the future shape and role of the the local authorities in whose area Partnership in its widest sense. an AONB lies to produce a single It identified resources, especially Management Plan for it. unrestricted funding, and farming The Plan must be reviewed every five years. The current North Wessex Downs AONB Management as priorities for focussed work. Plan runs to 2019. With our partners we have It also identified a need for a brief been busy reviewing it and producing a new written Corporate Strategy document: Management Plan for 2019-24. The process was guided by a small Management Plan Review a framework summarising the AONB Group made up of volunteers with a range of Partnership’s vision for governance, expertise and experience, advised by the AONB’s Management Working Group and overseen resources and collaboration with the by the governing Council of Partners. We are wider ‘Community of the North grateful to these volunteers and Natural England Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding staff for their guidance and support. Natural Beauty’. We held a public consultation on the draft Plan from August to November 2018. Publicity for the The Corporate Strategy was developed and refined consultation included emails to Parish Councils with input from members of the Corporate Strategy and those on our mailing list, information on our Review group and approved by the Council of Partners website and invitations to respond targeted at in July 2018. In summary it: our key partners and Government agencies. • Sets out the statutory basis, purpose and All responses received were recorded, carefully responsibilities of the AONB designation and assessed against agreed criteria and commented Partnership. on, leading to numerous amendments and • Describes the community of the North Wessex improvements to the draft Plan. The resulting Downs AONB: not only the Partnership but adoption draft Plan was approved by the Council “everyone – from farmers and businesses to local of Partners in March 2019, at which point the residents and visitors from afar – who has an process of adoption by individual local authority interest in ensuring that this special landscape has partners began. a sustainable future”. The new Plan is due to be published in • Lists the main pressures for change that could the autumn. prove harmful to the landscape’s natural beauty and tranquillity. • Highlights the critical issue of resources: “to fulfil our potential we need to harness energy and resources well beyond the statutory obligations and public funds of our partners. Instead we need to become a ‘mixed economy’ of public, voluntary, commercial and community forces.” • Identifies priority areas for organisational development, including funding and resources; farming and land management; and collaboration with the North Wessex Downs Landscape Trust. The Corporate Strategy is intended to stand alongside the AONB Management Plan and the AONB Unit Work Programme. It will be subject to future review and © David Hall revision as required.

www.northwessexdowns.org.uk 9 PROTECTING

Defending Natural Beauty Vale of White Horse Local Plan Part 2 – Harwell Campus Having raised our concerns over the principle of major development in the AONB and the loss of land designated for employment at the hearings for this Plan, it came as a welcome surprise when in December 2018 the Planning Inspector requested that the Great Western alternative design options for the 1000 dwelling allocation be removed Electrification Project gantries. This work came to an as ‘unsound’. end in early 2019 when the latest We attended hearings of the Vale report demonstrated that it would Following extensive and intensive of White Horse Local Plan (Part 2) collaboration between North not be economically viable to examination in the summer of 2018 Wessex Downs AONB, Chilterns replace or alter the gantries. This in response to the Council’s proposals Conservation Board and the local came as a huge disappointment to allocated 1000 dwellings at Railway Action Group, over £3M to us as we continued to remind has been secured to compensate NR of their Duty of Regard. Harwell Campus as an Innovation for the damage done to the In March, we were however Village thus providing affordable natural beauty of the landscape able to negotiate and secure a housing for employees of the by rail electrification through the compensation fund of £3.75 campus. However, 30% of these were Goring Gap. million towards mitigation and to be sold on the open market to fund the development. When Network Rail (NR) started landscape enhancement projects. installing gantries without Funded by NR, the project will The AONB along with CPRE consultation in 2015 as part of seek to restore and enhance (Campaign to Protect Rural England) a major electrification project on natural beauty in this landscape raised significant concerns and the Great Western main line the and address the impact on local we reminded the Inspector of the North Wessex Downs AONB, the communities and the visitor previous decision to remove a 1400 Chilterns Conservation Board economy. £750,000 is earmarked home allocation at Harwell Campus in and local residents in the Railway for line-side tree planting and the Part 1 examination. Furthermore, Action Group raised the alarm and vegetation where appropriate to we raised the inability of the Council reminded NR of its statutory duty help soften the impact of the steel and landowner to demonstrate to have regard for conserving and gantries. A further £3 million will be a need for, and the retention of, enhancing the natural beauty of spent on landscape enhancement affordable dwellings for employees our AONB landscapes We called projects within the wider corridor of only. We were very pleased when, for the gantries to be replaced the electrification works. in December 2018, the Planning with a more sensitively designed Even though replacement was Inspector requested that the 1000 set of structures which would not feasible for the Great Western dwelling allocation be removed as be less visually intrusive in these electrification project here, the part of the main modifications report nationally-protected landscapes. lessons learned have already because he found the Council were NR in response convened an resulted in better designs being unable to demonstrate a local need. Overhead Line Electrification installed through the Cotswolds Design Review Panel which AONB and encouraged NR to The Local Authority has accepted included representatives of both develop new guidelines to ensure the modifications and the Inspector AONBs. The main purpose was that protected landscapes are issued his final report in June 2019 to provide specialist technical considered carefully in future rail concluding that the Plan is now advice to help with the review of electrification projects. ‘Sound’.

South Oxfordshire Local Plan Final comments were submitted in February 2019 to the Council in response to their latest draft of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan. We liaised with the Chilterns AONB on shared concerns over housing numbers, division of allocations between AONB and non-AONB land and the lack of understanding of the importance of the AONBs. Ideas were also provided on ways to improve landscape policies ensuring that AONBs are conserved and enhanced in addition to promoting green infrastructure. The Draft Local Plan has now been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for examination which is likely to be towards the end of the year.

10 North Wessex Downs AONB - Annual Review 2018-2019 FINANCIAL SUMMARY

Income 2018-2019

DEFRA...... 244,479 Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council...... 3,939 Hampshire County Council...... 8,855 Oxfordshire County Council...... 7,299 South Oxfordshire District Council...... 3,939 Swindon Borough Council...... 5,121 Test Valley Borough Council...... 3,939 Vale of White Horse District Council...... 3,939 District Council...... 13,211 ...... 16,322 AONB unrestricted income...... 9,937*

Total Income...... 316,900

*£4,080.15 was transferred to reserves.

Expenditure 2018-2019

Salaries ...... 202,296 Travel & subsistence...... 3,352 Staff Development...... 743 Recruitment & relocation...... 2,081 Accommodation...... 31,851 IT...... 2,262 Partnership and national working...... 5,769 Events and publicity...... 2,298 Forum...... 3,409 Other general office costs...... 1,523 Landscape & Planning Support...... 12,927 Sustainable Development Fund...... 3,300 Projects...... 26,828 Management Plan Review...... 18,260

Total Expenditure...... 316,899

Adding Value Local Authority Contributions SDF Contributions

During 2018 – 2019 every £1 contributed For every £1 SDF awarded, a further £9.37 by the Local Authorities delivered has been contributed by partner organisations £8.56 in benefits to the AONB. towards projects in the AONB during 2018-2019.

LA Contribution Benefit brought into AONB SDF grants Community contribution £66,562 £570,021 £15,655 £146,736

www.northwessexdowns.org.uk 11 Produced on behalf of the Council of Partners

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North Wessex Downs AONB Units 3-4 Denford Manor Lower Denford Hungerford Berkshire RG17 0UN

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