Natural Areas in the East Midlands Region helping to set the regional agenda for nature Introduction egional strategies and policy The conservation of nature is a key local and national priorities for nature documents are being drawn test of policy in all three facets of into the Regional decision-making R up by the newly-created sustainable development, the social, framework. It contains information of Regional organisations. These are the economic and the environmental. direct relevance to the development required to encompass the protection While its role in the environment is of Regional Planning Guidance and and management of the environment self evident, it also has social Single Programming Documents to by applying the principles of implications through the spiritual, support the delivery of European sustainable development. cultural and recreational value of Union Structural Funding, people’s experience of the natural regeneration funding and other This document has been produced world; and economic implications economic and social programmes. by English Nature, the Government through the provision of exploitable body that promotes the conservation resources and the attractiveness to The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries of wildlife and natural features investors of high quality and Food, the Environment Agency, throughout England. It is for use by environments. the country forestry organisations, the Regional Development Agency, local authorities and statutory and the Government Regional Office If we are serious about achieving other agencies involved in land use and the Regional Chambers, when sustainable development, then and land management issues will also making Regional policy. We hope understanding the priorities for the find it relevant and, we hope, of value. that it will provide a starting point conservation of the biodiversity and for discussion with our network of Earth heritage resource of the Region We envisage that this document can Regional Lead Teams, who can is therefore essential. This report is a therefore be used at a number of key provide valuable support, and links first step towards that understanding, points within the Regional strategy- into wider partnerships. and provides the basis for integrating making and planning process. Peveril Castle, Castleton, Derbyshire. Peter Wakely/English Nature East Midlands Region Introduction 3 Natural Areas as a Regional framework for nature English Nature has divided England into a series of Natural Areas. Their boundaries are based on the distribution of wildlife and natural features and the land use patterns and human history of each area. They do not follow administrative boundaries but relate instead to variations in the character of the landscape. They reflect our cultural heritage and are central to English Nature’s organisational strategy Beyond 2000. We worked with the Countryside Commission (soon to become the Countryside Agency) to identify a joint approach to the characterisation of the countryside into locally distinctive units called character areas. Where the wildlife and natural features are similar between adjacent character areas we have merged them into one Natural Area - so, a Natural Area may contain several character areas that are considered to be different landscape types. Natural Areas offer a more effective framework for the planning and achievement of nature conservation objectives than do administrative boundaries. Although they are not formal Claxby Chalk Pit, Lincolnshire. Jane Ostler/English Nature designations they are now recognised in Government Planning Policy Guidance Relevant Government Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) (PPG) and other statutory advice. PPG 7: The Countryside: environmental quality and economic and Within this framework, we have, with social development our key partners in the Region, PPG 9: Nature Conservation identified the chief threats to, and PPG 11: Regional Planning Guidance opportunities for, nature conservation. PPG 12: Development Plans and Regional Planning Guidance Together, we have defined a range of (presently under review) issues, and set associated objectives PPG 13: Transport that we believe provide a starting point for Regional action to protect and Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions Policy Guidance: Policy manage our biodiversity and geological appraisal and the environment (DETR, 1998). assets. These objectives are set out in the sections which follow. East Midlands Region Introduction 4 Objectives for Regional boundary 34 North sustainable 23 Southern Lincolnshire Magnesian Coversands development and Limestone and Clay nature conservation in Vales 25 Dark 101 Bridlington Peak to Skegness the East Midlands 24 Coal Region Measures 32 35 Lincolnshire 29 South Sherwood Wolds West Peak 36 Lincolnshire The East Midlands is a region of Coast and dramatic, and often sharp, contrasts. Marshes Dense urban populations can be 30 White found in and around the major Peak 33 102 Trent The metropolitan centres of Derby, Valley & Wash Rises Leicester, Northampton and 38 Lincolnshire and Rutland 24 Nottingham, traditionally linked to 40 Needwood 39 Charnwood Limestone and South coal, textiles and the heavy industries. Derbyshire 37 The Fens Claylands The East and West of the Region are rural, and Lincolnshire is one of the 31 Derbyshire 45 Rockingham Peak Fringe Forest most sparsely populated counties in and Lower Derwent England. Agriculture is the dominant 52 West Anglian land use and underpins the rural Plain 44 Midland Clay base. For instance, the East Midlands Pastures 54 Yardley-Whittlewood Region produces 30% of the national Ridge vegetable crop and 40% of the bulbs and flowers. Natural Areas covered in the East Midlands Region report The diverse landscape supports a wildlife, and sit within the farmland generations, we need to look at how characteristic combination of wildlife which dominates the East Midlands we can act to maintain and improve and geological heritage. The Region landscape - where a number of both our local and global varies from the rugged upland moors important species such as brown hare environments. There is no doubt and limestone dales of the Peak and lapwing can be found. that work at the Regional level can be District, through the a powerful force in steering local Nottinghamshire coalfield, the great The distribution of wildlife and the agendas for environmental action, clay vale of the Trent, the ridges of texture of the landscape are the whilst providing strong links to the Lincoln Cliff limestone and the product of complex interactions. national and international chalk of the Wolds, to the flat fertile The basic physical qualities of the programmes. silts of the Lincolnshire Coastal rock, soil and climate have set the Plains and the sand dunes of the scene, but the detail has been, and Sustainable development requires Lincolnshire coast and the Wash. will continue to be, shaped through integration, rather than balance or human activity which is driven by trade off. Decision makers need to The Peak National Park in the west economic, social, and environmental build environmental and social and the Lincolnshire coast and the forces. criteria into the heart of their Wash in the east, have an outstanding policies and programmes - and diversity of special wildlife habitats Our ability to exploit the ensure that they are given the same and species that are very rare, and of environment for economic gain is weight as economic considerations very high quality, of which the Region beginning to jeopardise our present at the beginning of the process. This can be justifiably proud. Rutland and future well-being. Since our is what is meant by integration, and Water and Sherwood Forest are also decisions can have far-reaching contrasts with the more familiar of international importance for their effects on present and future situation, where proposals are drawn East Midlands Region Introduction 5 up against economic criteria alone land as much as possible, while predominantly part of agricultural and are only weighed against their ensuring that the quality of towns or management systems. Farmland environmental impact when they are cities is maintained or improved. therefore provides a major about to be implemented. The challenge will be to determine source of opportunity for habitat which patterns and locations of creation and maintenance, and The basic means for many of the development prove most species protection and Regional level structures and sustainable. enhancement. Its importance is organisations to act will be through reflected in the issues and the planning process for built Conserving and enhancing nature objectives that are listed at the development and infrastructure. can be compatible with development start of each section. Planners have a key role in and, whilst the built environment has incorporating economic, fewer designated sites, Local Nature The intensification of agriculture, environmental and social factors into Reserves, pocket parks, green space and associated decline in traditional decisions about where to put homes, and even private gardens, are the land management, combined with jobs, shops and leisure facilities. In only contact the majority of people the huge growth of the major towns this way, demands on land, the have with nature. They are also and cities, has resulted in the environment and nature can be important reservoirs of biodiversity. reclamation and loss of much of the managed more sustainably. lowland semi-natural habitat