Topic Paper Valued Landscapes January 2020
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Topic Paper Valued Landscapes January 2020 To accompany the Draft Local Plan Update consultation 1 Contents 1. Background ..................................................................................................................................... 3 2. What makes a Landscape? .............................................................................................................. 3 3. Planning Framework ....................................................................................................................... 4 4. An Introduction to Valued Landscapes ........................................................................................... 5 5. The Method used to determine which areas merit Valued Landscape designation locally ........... 8 1. Digital Layering ........................................................................................................................... 9 2. Data Interrogation and Display................................................................................................. 11 3. Further scrutiny of the landscape areas .................................................................................... 12 4. Delineating boundaries ............................................................................................................. 13 6. Cross Boundary matters ................................................................................................................ 14 7. Concluding remarks ...................................................................................................................... 15 Appendix 1: Table 2 – Attributes Table ................................................................................................. 16 Appendix 2: Valued Landscape area Narratives and maps ................................................................... 18 Appendix 3: Map of Valued Landscapes across Wokingham Borough ............................................... 118 2 1. Background 1.1 This paper provides background evidence and justification for Wokingham Borough Council’s designation of Valued Landscapes as per Policy NE6 of the Draft Local Plan. It sets out the relevant legislation and policy guidance and details the methodology used for determining Valued Landscapes across the Borough. It is intended that this paper inform the development of the Local Plan Update and demonstrate how evidence has been applied in order to formulate policies designating Valued Landscapes in Wokingham Borough. 1.2 The outputs of this work will also help assist officers in Development Management when assessing future planning applications. 1.3 Work on the Borough’s Valued Landscapes builds on the Council’s most recent Landscape Character Assessment (LCA), (2019), as well as the 2004 Wokingham Landscape Character Assessment and offers an objective description of the landscape including its features and attributes. The LCAs provide an evidence base to support policies within the LPU and more widely guide decision making around development and the management of future change. They are designed to be used both as a positive tool to guide new development or land uses in a way that understands and responds to local variations in landscape character and to protect and enhance the special qualities and local distinctiveness of Wokingham’s landscape. The updated LCA contains more detailed evaluative information to provide greater understanding of key sensitivities and values to help in decision-making and accommodating change by providing an understanding of what is valued and why. 2. What makes a Landscape? 2.1 The landscape is made up of a series of layers, the underlying geology forming a series of plateaus, hills and valleys. One important element of this is layering is the exposed surface rock, that has been subjected to processes of weathering and erosion as well as the effects of fungi, plant root action, soil microbes and larger animals (both wild and domesticated) to create soils. Soils are the basis for the ecosystems that sustain human life. 2.2 Initially only local people themselves modified the landscape, creating settlements, structures, ancient trackways and developing forms of agriculture. Over time, the civilisations and cultures in the landscape add further layers through the creation of boundaries, transport networks, buildings and cultural, recreational and religious sites. More recently people have invested time, expertise and money in the building of infrastructure, commercial centres and housing, exerting strong influences over the landscape, often from afar. 2.3 Today people continue to shape and influence the appearance of the landscape and still have an important stake in the continuity of occupation. They bring ownership and knowledge of the landscape and its management, often feeling a strong connection and affiliation to it. The associations and affections people have all contribute to make up the character the landscape. 2.4 The Landscape Institute’s Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, Revision 3, (2013) quoting guidance on Landscape Character Assessment from 2002 says: 3 ‘Landscape is about the relationship between people and place. It provides the setting for our day-to-day lives. The term does not mean just special or designated landscapes and it does not only apply to the countryside. Landscape can mean a small patch of urban wasteland as much as a mountain range, and an urban park as much as an expanse of lowland plain. It results from the way that different components of our environment – both natural (the influences of geology, soils. Climate, flora and fauna) and cultural (the historical and current impact of land use, settlement, enclosure and other human interventions) – interact together and are perceived by as. People’s perceptions turn land into the concept of landscape.’ (Swanwick and Land Use Consultants, 2002: 2). 3. Planning Framework 3.1 Given the importance and prominence of landscape matters, various policy and guidance has been published across a variety of scales. Some of this considers landscape in its entirety, whereas others consider landscape with greater specificity. 3.2 Whilst it is noted that no landscapes within the borough are currently designated as being of international cultural significance, the UNESCO Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention recognises the twin roles of nature and people in the development of landscapes: Cultural landscapes are cultural properties and represent the “combined works of nature and of man” designated in Article 1 of the Convention. They are illustrative of the evolution of human society and settlement over time, under the influence of the physical constraints and/or opportunities presented by their natural environment and of successive social, economic and cultural forces, both external and internal.1 3.3 Landscape is further an important element of national planning policy, with Paragraph 8 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2019) (NPPF) stating: ‘The purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development’. Paragraph 8c) states that one of three ‘overarching objectives’ is an environmental one: ‘c) an environmental objective – to contribute to protecting and enhancing our natural, built and historic environment; including making effective use of land, helping to improve biodiversity, using natural resources prudently, minimising waste and pollution, and mitigating and adapting to climate change, including moving to a low carbon economy’. 3.4 Paragraph 20 of the NPPF states that: ‘Strategic policies should set out an overall strategy for the pattern, scale and quality of development and make sufficient provision for: d) conservation and enhancement of the natural, built and historic environment, including landscapes and green infrastructure, and planning measures to address climate change mitigation and adaptation.’ 3.5 Paragraph 170 of the NPPF further states: 1 UNESCO Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, 10th July 2019, paragraph 47. 4 ‘Planning policies and decisions should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment by: a) protecting and enhancing valued landscapes, sites of biodiversity or geological value and soils (in a manner commensurate with their statutory status or identified quality in the development plan); b) recognising the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside, and the wider benefits from natural capital and ecosystem services – including the economic and other benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land, and of trees and woodland’ 3.6 The overall objective for the natural and local environment being that planning policies and decisions should protect, contribute towards and enhance valued landscape by recognising the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside. 3.7 The NPPF states at paragraph 171 that: ‘Plans should: distinguish between the hierarchy of international, national and locally designated sites; allocate land with the least environmental or amenity value’. It continues that plans should: ‘…take a strategic approach to maintaining and enhancing networks of habitats and green infrastructure; and plan for the enhancement of natural capital at a catchment or landscape scale across local authority boundaries’. 3.8 The Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) provides further detail to the NPPF. The PPG notes: ‘Where landscapes have a particular local