Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs AONB Management Plan 2009 - 2014 Foreword ............................................................................. 4 Introduction ......................................................................... 6 What makes this area special? ............................................. 10 A vision for the AONB ........................................................ 12 Plan structure ..................................................................... 14 Policy context ..................................................................... 18 Theme 1 - Cross-cutting ...................................................... 20 Theme 2 - Distinctive local landscapes ................................. 26 Theme 3 - Vibrant local communities ................................... 42 Theme 4 - Towards a sustainable economy ........................... 50 Financial implications ......................................................... 60 Spatial issues by landscape type .......................................... 62 Implementation .................................................................. 68 Appendices ........................................................................ 74 Glossary and Explanation of Terms ....................................... 86 Credits ............................................................................... 90 AONB Office, Castle Street, Cranborne, Dorset BH21 5PZ Tel: 01725 517417 email: [email protected] www.ccwwdaonb.org.uk 3 Foreword Foreword “To be classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty has a fine ring to it.” Desmond Hawkins 1980 4 Foreword Foreword from the many farming communities, the bedrock of our AONB, have waned. Family farms, farm and woodland based Chair Dr GR Potts businesses and especially mixed farms, have sadly declined Walk along the tops of any of our and these are the ones that used to bring most wildlife downs and escarpments and you biodiversity to the landscape. look down on truly beautiful historic Fortunately, all our AONB partners, and especially Natural landscapes. We may complain about heavy vehicles, 4x4s England, are rising to the challenge of restoring ecological on Rights of Way, about litter or fly-tipping, light pollution, diversity and rural business sustainability. aircraft noise and various undesirable developments, but we can still be immensely proud of our landscapes and of With the agri-environment measures many can now work the 1981 decision to designate Cranborne Chase and the together to restore as much of our traditional farmland West Wiltshire Downs as an AONB. ecology as practicable, rare but formerly abundant wild flowers, butterflies, grasshoppers, bats, hares, lapwings, This Plan is faithful to the original published in 2004, buntings and partridges. One requirement is for a better distilled from a vast input of ideas by residents. It is harmonisation of landowner and public sector investment in however more streamlined with a simplified strategic wildlife habitats especially where these are unpopular with framework. An annual review of the delivery of results will farmers but very effective for treasured wildlife. guide the Partnership Panel, discipline the professional team in Cranborne and give more flexibility in reacting to As well as recovering some of our past biodiversity, we circumstances as they change. face new and growing challenges: increasing pressure for The European Landscape Convention came into operation development, a changing climate and the globalisation in the UK, on 1st March 2007. The Convention defines of agriculture. These ‘forces for change’ will impact on all landscape as “an area, as perceived by people, whose aspects of life within the AONB and are emphasised at the character is the result of the action and interaction of natural beginning of the Plan. and/or human factors”. Put another way, landscape is our There is much to do and this Management Plan, the product living natural and cultural heritage. Ours is essentially a of a huge amount of collective practical experience, is result of centuries of agriculture and hunting still enjoyed needed to provide us with a strategic framework and by residents (32,000 people live in our AONB) and by the necessary discipline. We have an excellent team, visitors from the cities and towns seeking havens of peace, a thorough and realistic new Management Plan and a tranquillity and culture. challenge second to none. I commend the Plan to you and However, despite the fact that the government has wish everyone involved that luck we all need for success. underpinned our agricultural economy for many decades, 5 Introduction Introduction “Jade-green downs.. rise up..as if the pent up mass of the downs was about to burst forth thundering onto the plain” - Treves, 1906. 6 Introduction Cranborne Chase and West therefore be equivalent.1 Wiltshire Downs Management Plan The AONB landscape is also of international importance, recognised as a Category V Protected Landscape by the This document is the statutory Management Plan for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). nationally designated and protected landscape of the It is an evolved cultural landscape, managed and nurtured Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of by people over millennia. Those who manage the land Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), as required under the are central to the future of this landscape. It is inevitable Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. It is a plan for and appropriate that this cultural landscape will continue all those that have a responsibility to look after this precious to develop but this needs to be in ways that conserve and and treasured landscape. enhance its special qualities. There are 41 AONBs nationally, covering 15.6% of the Please refer to Map 1 in the accompanying guide land in England and Wales. Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs is the 6th largest and is one of twelve The 2004-09 Management Plan was subject to review AONBs in the South West region. from September 2007. Responses were received from 66 organisations and individuals. The revised draft plan Please refer to Map 2 in the accompanying guide was subject to a Strategic Environmental Assessment and to public consultation between September and October The majority of Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire 2008. The revised plan has been formally approved by the Downs lies within the South West region however 6.8% Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Partnership of the AONB (the Hampshire section) falls within the Panel and relevant local authorities. It has been published South East region. In the South West, together with the with the assistance of the partners responsible for much of two National Parks (Exmoor and Dartmoor), the family of the plan’s delivery. The Partnership Delivery Plan, which sets protected areas cover some 38% of the countryside of the out the programme for achieving the Management Plan’s region. aims and objectives, will be reviewed annually by the Partnership Panel. Primary purpose of designation This Management Plan, the Strategic Environmental Assessment, the Partnership Delivery Plan, the Landscape The primary purpose of AONB designation is ‘conserving Character Assessment, Historic Landscape Characterisation and enhancing the natural beauty of the area’2. and the Planning Protocol can all be found on the ‘In pursuing the primary purpose of designation, account Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB should be taken of the needs of agriculture, forestry and website: www.ccwwdaonb.org.uk other rural industries and of the economic and social needs Enquiries about these documents can be made to the of local communities. Particular regard should be paid Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB Team to promoting sustainable forms of economic and social through the website or by telephone: 01725 517417. development that in themselves conserve and enhance the environment. The significance of AONB Recreation is not an objective of designation, but the designation demand for recreation should be met so far as this is consistent with the conservation of natural beauty and the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs was needs of agriculture, forestry and other uses.’3 designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1981, under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Following the introduction of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, the government confirmed that the landscape qualities of National Parks 1. Planning Policy Statement 7: Sustainable Development in Rural Areas, and AONBs are equivalent. The protection given to both paragraph 21, HMSO 2004. types of area by the land use planning system should 2. Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, Section 82 3. Countryside Commission Policy Statement on Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty 1991 7 Introduction Definition of natural beauty The AONB Partnership Section 114 of the National Parks and Access to the Since designation in 1981, the AONB has covered the Countryside Act 1949 states that references to the administrative areas of eleven Local Authorities: Wiltshire, preservation or conservation of the natural beauty of Dorset, Hampshire and Somerset County Councils and an area shall be construed as including references to seven District Councils: Salisbury, West Wiltshire, East the preservation or, as the case may be, conservation Dorset, North Dorset, New Forest, Mendip and South of its flora, fauna and geological