Landscape and Visual Appraisal HELENA ROMANES SCHOOL, GREAT DUNMOW | Harbour Road | Portishead | Bristol | BS20 | Portishead 7AN | Bristol Road | Harbour HELENA ROMANES SCHOOL Court Kestrel t +44 (0)1275 390425 e [email protected] www.lizlake.com December 2013 | Chapel Hill | Stansted Mountfitchet Hill | Stansted | Chapel | Essex | CM24 8AG Liz Lake Associates Lake Landscape Chartered Liz Architects House Western t +44 (0)1279 647044 e [email protected] www.lizlake.com Landscape and Visual Appraisal LAND AT HELENA ROMANES SCHOOL, GREAT DUNMOW Helena Romanes School December 2013 Prepared by: Ben Spurden Position: Senior Landscape Architect Qualifications: Chartered Landscape Architect BA MLA CMLI File name: 1587 L&VA revA_14.01.06.docx Date issued: 6th January 2014 Checked by: Dr Liz Lake Landscape and Visual Appraisal: Helena Romanes School CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 The Purpose of this Report 1 1.2 Site Context 1 1.3 Site Description 1 2 THE EXISTING SITUATION: BASELINE DATA 3 2.1 Landscape Character 3 2.2 Landscape Resource – The Site 4 2.3 Visual Resource 6 3 THE PROPOSALS 10 3.1 Proposal 10 3.2 Approach to Mitigation 10 4 ASSESSMENT OF LIKELY LANDSCAPE EFFECTS 12 4.1 Susceptibility 12 4.2 Identifying the Landscape Effects 12 5 ASSESSMENT OF LIKELY VISUAL EFFECTS 14 5.1 Identifying the Visual Effects 14 5.2 Likely Visual Effects 14 6 ASSESSMENT OF LIKELY CUMULATIVE EFFECTS 16 6.1 Sector 4 – Woodlands Park development 16 7 CONCLUSION 17 1587 L&VA revA_14.01.06.docx Landscape and Visual Appraisal: Helena Romanes School APPENDIX A FIGURES FIGURE 1 – SITE LOCATION FIGURE 2 – TOPOGRAPHY FIGURE 3 – DESIGNATIONS FIGURE 4 – SITE CONTEXT PHOTO LOCATIONS FIGURE 5.1-5.5 – PHOTOGRAPHIC SHEETS APPENDIX B PUBLISHED LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENTS APPENDIX C LIZ LAKE ASSOCIATES METHODOLOGY FOR LANDSCAPE AND VISUAL APPRAISAL 1587 L&VA revA_14.01.06.docx Landscape and Visual Appraisal: Helena Romanes School 1 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Purpose of this Report 1.1.1 Liz Lake Associates has been commissioned by the Helena Romanes School to prepare a Landscape and Visual Appraisal of a proposal for residential development of land currently occupied by the Helena Romanes School, Great Dunmow, Essex. The report accompanies a delivery statement to be submitted to Uttlesford District Council. 1.1.2 The assessment was carried out by Ben Spurden, Chartered Landscape Architect of Liz Lake Associates, on 9th December 2013. Weather conditions were clear. 1.1.3 The following documents were used in the assessment and should be read in conjunction with this report: Go Planning Report: Design Concept Proposal 1.2 Site Context 1.2.1 The proposed development site (the Site) is located to the north of Great Dunmow, Essex and is approximately 11 hectares in size. It lies within the Uttlesford District Council Local Authority. 1.2.2 The Site lies to the west of the B184 on the northern edge of Great Dunmow. Access from the B184 is via Parsonage Downs, a minor access road. 1.2.3 To the east of the Site are a number of detached residential properties, fronting a green (Parsonage Downs) on the western edge of the B184. Newton Hall (a Grade II Listed building) lies to the south western corner of the Site, within the southern edge of a block of woodland running along the western Site boundary. 1.3 Site Description 1.3.1 The Site includes the existing school buildings and associated car park occupying the southern part of the Site, and grass playing fields occupying the northern and south western parts of the Site. Also lying within the grounds of the school but outside of the Site boundary are a number of hard surfaced outdoor courts associated with the school. The 1587 L&VA revA_14.01.06.docx Landscape and Visual Appraisal: Helena Romanes School Great Dunmow Leisure Centre and associated car park also lies within the southern part of the existing school grounds but lie outside of the proposed development Site boundary. 1587 L&VA revA_14.01.06.docx Landscape and Visual Appraisal: Helena Romanes School 3 2 THE EXISTING SITUATION: BASELINE DATA 2.1 Landscape Character 2.1.1 The Site is located within National Character Area (NCA) 86 South Suffolk and North Essex Clayland. The NCA covers a vast area, extending to Ipswich in the east, Stevenage in the west, Bury St Edmunds in the north and Chelmsford in the south. The area is characterised by undulating country with small river valleys flowing east and sporadic areas of flat land. 2.1.2 Key relevant characteristics of the character area include; Broadly flat, chalky, boulder clay plateau dissected by undulating river valley topography, particularly marked in upper valley reaches, which are much smaller in scale. Winding road pattern away from major routes, often with wide verges and strong hedgerows. Sunken hollow lanes are a feature, lined with hedgerows, but impact of Dutch Elm disease apparent. Predominantly arable with wooded appearance. Some pasture in valley floors. Irregular field pattern despite rationalization; remnant Ancient Countryside.1 2.1.3 At a county scale the Site lies within the Chelmer Valley character area, as defined by the Essex Landscape Character Assessment 2003. The character area is predominantly rural, although includes the built-up area of Great Dunmow. The character area is defined as a narrow valley with ‘an enclosed character with many riverside and hedgerow trees and a string of small wet woodlands.’2 Typically views are framed and confined by the valley vegetation. Vegetation along the valley sides is predominantly gappy hedgerows, creating a more open character, with very occasional woodland. 2.1.4 At a local scale the Site lies within the Upper Chelmer River Valley character area, as defined by the Uttlesford Landscape Character Assessments 2006. This local character area 1 National Character Area 86: South Suffolk and North Essex Clayland 2 Essex Landscape Character Assessment, 2003, Chris Blandford Associates 1587 L&VA revA_14.01.06.docx Landscape and Visual Appraisal: Helena Romanes School is very similar to that of the Chelmer Valley county character area, characterised by a narrow river valley, with an open & tranquil character away from Great Dunmow, Chelmsford and the A120. 2.1.5 The local landscape character area outlines strategies and guidelines for the future, with the overall landscape strategy objective within the area being to Conserve and Enhance the existing landscape. New residential development should consider the visual impact upon valley sides and cross-valley views should be conserved and enhanced. 2.1.6 The Site is typical of some of the characteristics of the county and local landscape character areas, being located on a river valley slope with tree lined hedgerow field boundaries and small pockets of adjacent woodland. The Site does however have an existing peri-urban character due to the presence of the school, sports centre, car parking and hard surfaced playing pitches. 2.1.7 The Site is assessed as having a limited contribution to the local landscape character given its peri-urban character of school buildings, car parking, playing fields and hard surfacing. 2.2 Landscape Resource – The Site Topography 2.2.1 The Site lies on the north facing slope of the River Chelmer valley, which slopes down to the River Chelmer, around 0.5km north and east of the Site (see Figure 2 – Topography). The landform then rises up to the north and east of the river to locally high points of around 95m AOD, around Bigod’s Wood and Ridley Wood. 2.2.2 The topography of the Site itself varies considerably, with the southern part of the Site lying at around 80m AOD, sloping down to the northern part of the Site at around 60m AOD. Large areas of the Site have been levelled out in order to accommodate the sports playing pitches, resulting in a series of narrow banks and terraces which divide up the Site and accommodate the changes in level (photographs 1 and 2). Public Rights of Way 2.2.3 There are no public rights of way crossing the Site itself, although a public footpath (PROW 18_87) runs west and north from the B184, parallel to the southern Site boundary, past 1587 L&VA revA_14.01.06.docx Landscape and Visual Appraisal: Helena Romanes School 5 Newton Hall and joins Park Road to the north. There are also several public footpaths leading north and east from the B184 to the north of the Site (including PROWs 18_1, 18_2 and 18_3). Built Elements 2.2.4 There are several buildings associated with the Helena Romanes school in the southern part of the Site, the majority of which are 2 – 3 stories in height with flat roofs, with part of the main school building being 3 – 4 stories in height. The Great Dunmow Leisure Centre building also lies south of the development Site and is a two storey building with a sloping roof. Vegetation Cover 2.2.5 Vegetation is predominantly limited to the Site boundaries, with some large specimen oak trees, scattered along the northern and western boundaries. A large specimen oak and clumps of younger tree planting are located in the centre of the Site, along the line of the bank which separates the central and northern parts of the Site (photograph 2). A wooded copse in the western part of the Site containing predominantly scrub, also contains two large oak trees and two large silver birch trees. This copse adjoins a larger area of woodland, running along the majority of the western Site boundary. A smaller area of woodland; Graces Wood lies outside of the north eastern corner of the Site.