Landscape Conservation Action Plan Part 1
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Fellfoot Forward Landscape Conservation Action Plan Part 1 Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Scheme Landscape Conservation Action Plan 1 Fellfoot Forward is led by the North Pennines AONB Partnership and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Our Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership includes these partners Contents Landscape Conservation Action Plan Part 1 1. Acknowledgements 3 8 Fellfoot Forward LPS: making it happen 88 2. Foreword 4 8.1 Fellfoot Forward: the first steps 89 3. Executive Summary: A Manifesto for Our Landscape 5 8.2 Community consultation 90 4 Using the LCAP 6 8.3 Fellfoot Forward LPS Advisory Board 93 5 Understanding the Fellfoot Forward Landscape 7 8.4 Fellfoot Forward: 2020 – 2024 94 5.1 Location 8 8.5 Key milestones and events 94 5.2 What do we mean by landscape? 9 8.6 Delivery partners 96 5.3 Statement of Significance: 8.7 Staff team 96 what makes our Fellfoot landscape special? 10 8.8 Fellfoot Forward LPS: Risk register 98 5.4 Landscape Character Assessment 12 8.9 Financial arrangements 105 5.5 Beneath it all: Geology 32 8.10 Scheme office 106 5.6 Our past: pre-history to present day 38 8.11 Future Fair 106 5.7 Communities 41 8.12 Communications framework 107 5.8 The visitor experience 45 8.13 Evaluation and monitoring 113 5.9 Wildlife and habitats of the Fellfoot landscape 50 8.14 Changes to Scheme programme and budget since first stage submission 114 5.10 Moorlands 51 9 Key strategy documents 118 5.11 Grassland 52 5.12 Rivers and Streams 53 APPENDICES 5.13 Trees, woodlands and hedgerows 54 1 Glossary of abbreviations 124 5.14 Land use and ownership 56 2 Record of community engagement and consultation 125 5.15 Management of the High Fell 57 3 Fellfoot Forward Management guidelines for landscape type 132 5.16 Farming on the Fellside 58 4 Terms of Reference for Fellfoot Forward Advisory Board 139 6 Threats and Opportunities in the Fellfoot Landscape 60 5 Theory of Change model 141 6.1 Climate Change 61 6 North Pennines AONB Partnership: Staff Organogram with Fellfoot Forward LPS 143 6.2 Rivers and Natural Flood Management 63 7 Durham County Council procurement and finance guidance 144 6.3 On the Fells 66 6.4 Fellfoot Farms 69 Landscape Conservation Action Plan Part 2 6.5 Our Natural Heritage 72 The Scheme Plan: non-technical project summaries. 6.6 Our Cultural Heritage 75 Separate document 6.7 Visiting Fellfoot 78 6.8 Understanding the landscape 80 Landscape Conservation Action Plan Part 3 7 Scheme vision, aims and objectives 82 Mechnical Project plans, maps, consents and agreements, budgets, 7.1 Vision statement 83 management and maintenance plans, surveys and reports. 7.2 Fellfoot Forward LPS Aims and Objectives 86 Separate document 7.2.1 Aims 86 7.2.2 LPS Objectives and National Lottery Heritage Fund Outcomes 86 2 Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Scheme Landscape Conservation Action Plan 1. Acknowledgements This Landscape Conservation Action Thanks to Ged Lawson at Durham County Thanks to Andy Lees, Programme Manager Photo Credits Plan has been put together by the Council for our landscape character and Chris Woodley-Stewart, Director at assessment. Thanks to Jake Morton, North the North Pennines AONB Partnership for David Ambridge North Pennines AONB Partnership’s Pennines AONB Partnership (NPAONB) and their support in putting this LCAP together. Mike Collins Scheme development officers, Phillip Clegg for our geology description. Thank you also to Sophie McKee at National David Gosling Fiona Knox and Emma Wright, with Thanks to Paul Frodsham, Oracle Heritage Lottery Heritage Fund and Harriet Carty, our Dave Greaves for summarising the landscape’s history NLHF Mentor, for their help and advice. Shane Harris support from environment officer and to Sally Hemsley, Eden District Council, Charlie Hedley Vivien Kent. It brings together the Paul Walker, Carlisle City Council and Thank you to our advisory board and all Vivien Kent collective efforts of our partnership Sarah Hudspeth, Simon Wilson and Shane our partners for their support, advice and Fiona Knox Harris, NPAONB, for their contributions enthusiasm. Special thanks are due to the Gary Lintern and our advisory board, with to sections on communications, tourism, Fellfoot communities for their welcome Damon Mahoney particular thanks to our chair, Tom access and communities. Thanks to Veronica and for helping us shape our collective Adam Moan Speight, who wrote our foreword. Waller and Kate Gascoyne at the Farmer vision for the Fellfoot landscape. Andrew Parkinson Network for their descriptions of farming, Graham Relf and thanks to Jenny Garbe at Eden Rivers Eden Rivers Trust Trust for summarising the watercourses. Steve Westerberg Thank you to Hazel Graham at Cumbria Northeastwildlife.co.uk Action for Sustainability for her advice North Pennines AONB and ‘Future Fair’ vision for the Scheme. Partnership Warwick Bridge Primary School Illustration Credits Jake Morton Elizabeth Pickett Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Scheme Landscape Conservation Action Plan 3 2. Foreword Welcome to the Fellfoot Forward This landscape of the Eden Valley and An awful lot of work has gone into talking the fells above it is one of gentle beauty, and listening to local people and to local Landscape Conservation Action Plan. varied history and heritage and of organisations. To try to understand what it is people - who both live and work here as they would like to become involved in, what well as visit. Some of it well known, well they would like to become better connected used and well understood, some of it to. What it is that matters to them. We all more hidden, tranquil and out of sight. want this to be relevant to the people and Some might call it a “slow” landscape. to the landscape where they – we – live. And we all want to use the expertise that This project is a chance to strengthen a project such as this can introduce. understanding and awareness of an area I have grown to love and cherish in the A “slow” landscape is one of charm, fifteen years in which I have lived here. sustainability and deep understanding. It feels like a golden opportunity to join But it’s also very much a living landscape. things up, think big and build on all of I’d like this project to enhance curiosity, the natural wealth, both in the people of to excite the next generation, and to all ages and land of all contours, already quietly educate all who live, work and visit here. An opportunity to enhance and then here. And I’d like it to be well managed, root that “slowness” in a futureproofed carefully considered and fun to deliver. way, ready for whatever may come next. I have every confidence that it will be. Tom Speight, Advisory Board Chair July 2019 4 Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Scheme Landscape Conservation Action Plan 3. Executive Summary Once carved by ice, scoured by the Our Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Led by the North Pennines AONB has come together with the commitment Partnership and supported by the Helm Wind and torn between nations, to conserve, enhance and celebrate this National Lottery Heritage Fund, the the Fellfoot Forward landscape is now area’s unique natural and cultural heritage. Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership one of outward peace and tranquillity. We have an eye to the past: to the eight Scheme will empower local communities thousand years of human stories which to become guardians and ambassadors A landscape of gentle walks and need to be conserved and shared. But of their heritage. We will restore and majestic views, of veteran trees and we have also a keen awareness of the connect habitats, protect and celebrate ancient woodlands, of rich wildlife and threats that face our landscape today. our heritage and create access that encourages a deep and lasting hidden histories. It is a slow landscape, From curlew on the fells to rare bumblebees engagement with this special place. its quiet drama uniquely suited to an in our meadows; water vole along the immersive and reflective experience riverbanks and white-clawed crayfish in Our exciting and ambitious projects will the streams: our landscape is home to be complete by 2024. Our legacy will be a of a rich biodiversity and a deep past. many species which are scarce throughout more resilient landscape, left in the hands the rest of the U.K. Farming practices, of communities better-equipped to protect many of which are generations-old, are and celebrate their own particular Eden. responsible for protecting our soils, mitigating flood risks and conserving heritage features for visitors and residents. However, all these assets are at risk, as habitat degradation, political and economic upheaval and climate change threaten the conservation of our Fellfoot landscape. “Cumbria’s best-kept secret: Eden is Eden” A Fellfoot resident Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Scheme Landscape Conservation Action Plan 5 4. Using the Landsape Conservation Action Plan This Landscape Conservation Action The LCAP will guide four exciting years of Part 3: Project plans and scheme delivery. Fellfoot Forward, a National Lottery Heritage Part 3 includes working documents for Plan (LCAP) is the manifesto for Funded scheme. The Fellfoot Forward LPS each project with detailed key actions, our Fellfoot landscape, for our will connect Fellfoot communities and audiences and communications, risk communities, and for our natural build natural resilience into the landscape, registers and management plans. The forging creative connections with locals and reports and surveys that informed our and cultural heritage. It is the guiding visitors that encourage deep engagement projects are stored here. It also details document for the Fellfoot Forward with the heritage of this special place.