Part Two Key management issues and opportunities Arable farming at Avebury below the Ridgeway © K930754 Historic England Part Two: Key management issues and opportunities 6.0 INTRODUCTION TO KEY ISSUES management context. In addition, some new issues AND OPPORTUNITIES that have arisen in recent years are discussed for the first time. There have also been considerable changes 6.0.1 The key purpose of the Management Plan is to set in both international and national policy which will out a framework for the management of the WHS affect the future management and conservation to ensure its protection and the maintenance of its of the site. Not least of these is adoption of the OUV alongside its continued sustainable use. To Statement of OUV by UNESCO in 2013 which serves achieve this, the Management Plan needs to address as the focus for our management aims, policies and sustainability issues relating to visitor access, experience actions. UNESCO’s increased focus on the role of the and use of the Site, the retention of a sustainable community and the relationship of WHSs to sustainable working agricultural economy and the long-term social, economic development has also raised new issues and economic and amenity needs of the local community. opportunities that are reflected in the Plan. 6.0.2 The Plan does this by identification and consideration 6.0.5 The issues, threats and opportunities were identified for of key issues, threats and opportunities and by the both Avebury and Stonehenge during their respective development of policies and actions to deal with them. review processes. These were signed off by the Project The term ‘issue’ is used in the Plan in its widest sense Board and both Steering Committees. They were and refers not only to problems or threats but also then reviewed and rationalised to arrive at a list of 61 to changes in the management context that will need key issues. These are considered sequentially, and are to be reflected in the management framework. Part grouped together and discussed under the following Two of the Management Plan sets out and discusses eight themes: the key issues, threats and opportunities. Unlike the previous Avebury and Stonehenge Management Plans ● Planning and Policy which discussed issues in isolation in Part Two, this Plan ● Boundaries of the WHS includes discussion of both the issues and the agreed ● Conservation approaches and actions for addressing them in one ● Visitor Management and Sustainable Tourism section. This has been done to provide greater clarity ● Interpretation, Learning and Community regarding the rationale for the framework, a more Engagement cohesive and accessible document with greater ease of ● Roads and Traffic reference, and to minimise repetition as far as possible. ● Research The aims and policies without the issues are set out in ● Management, Liaison and Monitoring Part Three for reference. 6.0.6 Within each section the aim related to the theme 6.0.3 Part Two draws extensively on the Avebury 2005 and appears at the start. Sub-sections discuss the issues and Stonehenge 2009 Plans which considered the key issues threats in each area. Opportunities and approaches to in some detail. It also draws on the various surveys addressing these issues and threats are also discussed in and other work carried out in the WHS since the these sections. The actions agreed with WHS partners production of these two Plans. As with other parts of are indicated where relevant in the text and the policy the Plan, it has benefited greatly from the expertise, and actions are listed below each section for ease of knowledge and experience of the WHS partners and reference. They appear in brackets within the text members of the Management Plan Project Board, alongside the appropriate policy number. All aims, Steering Committees, Stonehenge Advisory Forum, policies and actions included in the Management Plan ASAHRG and the WHS Partnership Panel. The wider are set out in a comprehensive table in Part Four of the stakeholder community has also had the opportunity to Plan. This table provides additional information on lead input to the process through a series of workshops and and key partners, priority, timescales and outcomes/ both formal and informal consultation. success measures. 6.0.4 Considerable progress has been made on many of the issues at Avebury and Stonehenge since the last Plans were published in 2005 and 2009 respectively. It may now be easier to make progress on some of the more challenging issues due to changes in the 80 Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site Management Plan 2015 Part Two: Key management issues and opportunites 7.0 PLANNING AND POLICY Aim 1: The Management Plan will be endorsed by those bodies and individuals responsible for its implementation as the framework for long-term detailed decision-making on the protection and enhancement of the WHS and the maintenance of its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). Its aims and policies should be incorporated in relevant planning guidance and policies 7.0 Introduction 7.0.1 There have been considerable changes in the planning Marshall © Steve system and policy framework at international, national St James Church and sixteenth-century Avebury Manor Dovecote and local levels since the publication of the Avebury Management Plan in 2005. These changes have been 7.1 Evolving UNESCO policies and particularly marked at national and local level in the guidance five years following the publication of the Stonehenge Management Plan in 2009. Section 4.0 (Current Policy Issue1: UNESCO requirements need to be met. Its guidance and Context) sets out the policy and guidance framework the newly adopted UNESCO Statement of Outstanding Universal at all levels. This section mentions these changes where Value need to be reflected in the framework for the protection they are relevant to the WHS Management Plan aims, and management of the WHS policies and actions. 7.1.1 Details of UNESCO’s policy and guidance which 7.0.2 The first section discusses the requirement to produce constitutes the international framework for the a Statement of OUV and its impact on the management management of the WHS can be found in Section 4.1. framework for the WHS. Changes to the planning The UNESCO World Heritage Convention (1972) framework at a national level that are directly relevant provides protection at an international level for all to WHS issues are outlined. At a local level the WHSs in the UK. Wiltshire Core Strategy and its relevant policies as well as WHS Management Plan actions resulting from Statement of Outstanding Universal Value: key these are outlined. In addition the section highlights protection and management requirements the relevant statutory and non-statutory strategies and plans. Their relationship to the WHS is reviewed as 7.1.2 Following changes in the UNESCO requirements for well as actions required to ensure they reflect the aims all WHSs set out in more detail at 4.1.6, the Statement and policies of the WHS Management Plan. of Outstanding Universal Value (Statement of OUV) was adopted by the World Heritage Committee in 7.0.3 Under development pressures, current issues and 2013. This document is a key reference for the effective trends relevant to the WHS and its setting are listed. protection and management of the WHS, the main These include large renewable energy schemes, objective of which should be to sustain its OUV. 77 agricultural development and the scale of replacement dwellings. The impact of light pollution and additional 7.1.3 The following key protection and management issues tourist facilities is also discussed. Agreed policies and requirements set out in the UNESCO Statement and action to protect the WHS and sustain its of OUV have been reflected in drafting of the aims, OUV are set out. This includes the production of policies and actions in the Management Plan: a WHS Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) or appropriate planning guidance as well as the ● Development pressures: Setting Study and SPD/ development of a WHS Setting Study. In addition planning guidance reiterated in Wiltshire Core the need for a review of the boundary to enhance Strategy WHS Policy (59) the integrity of the Stonehenge part of the WHS is ● Boundary Review at Stonehenge discussed. ● Importance of sustainable, managed public access ● An overall visitor management and interpretation Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site Management Plan 2015 81 Part Two: Key management issues and opportunites strategy, together with a landscape strategy to Resource Manual, optimise access to and understanding of the WHS Managing Cultural World ● Maintain and enhance the improvements to Heritage (2013), was monuments achieved through agri-environment produced on behalf schemes supporting grassland reversion of the Committee and ● Avoid erosion of earthen monuments and buried Word Heritage Centre archaeology through visitor pressure and burrowing by the International animals Centre for the Study ● Impact of roads and traffic remains a major of the Preservation and challenge in both parts of the World Heritage Restoration of Cultural Property. The A303 continues to have a negative Property (ICCROM), impact on the setting of Stonehenge, the integrity ICOMOS and the of the WHS and visitor access to some parts of the International Union Managing Cultural World Heritage wider landscape. The A4 and other roads have a for Conservation of 2013 similar impact at Avebury Nature (IUCN). The ● Research to develop, in particular, understanding of manual underlines the role of heritage as a ‘powerful the overall relationship between buried and standing contributor to environmental, social and economic remains and its implications for the development, sustainability’. It advises that the management of WHSs use and meaning of the landscape over time. should ‘embrace initiatives that deliver mutual benefits ● Engagement of local residents in the stewardship of to the property and its surroundings that may not the WHS.