North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Annual Review 2019 - 2020 INTRODUCTION About the North Welcome Wessex Downs Welcome to the Annual Review of the North Wessex Downs AONB Partnership. The North Wessex Downs Area of This highlights our work during 2019- Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is the 2020 to conserve and enhance the natural third largest of Britain’s 46 AONBs and beauty of the designated landscape for received its status as a protected landscape the benefit of those living, working or in 1972. visiting in and around this special place. The AONB forms the cornerstone of the chalk band which stretches across England from Lincolnshire to 2019 was an unusually important year for the Kent. It covers 668 square miles (1,730 square km), UK’s protected landscapes. The Landscapes Review taking in 173 parishes including the market towns chaired by Julian Glover published its report, with of Hungerford and Marlborough, and reaching into potentially profound implications for AONBs. four counties - Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and We published our new AONB Management Plan Wiltshire. 2019-24, designed to help us realise the ambitions of the Landscapes Review, the Government’s 25 The rolling chalk hills with their thin, well-drained soils, Year Environment Plan and the new system of land provide the ideal conditions for chalk grassland with management support that will follow Brexit. chalk-loving flowers, insects and rare butterflies. They also give rise to internationally-rare chalk streams that The summer saw the successful delivery of our very support some of the UK’s most threatened and fragile first Walking Festival - part of our drive to raise the plants and animals as well as sustaining the beautiful profile of the North Wessex Downs and encourage valleys of this landscape. more people to visit, appreciate and benefit from the special qualities the AONB has to offer. We already knew how important green spaces are for our health and well-being; recently, it has become even clearer just how valuable beautiful landscapes are for everybody. This will spur us on in our endeavours to protect the natural beauty of the North Wessex Downs, to encourage others to benefit from it and, in so doing, contribute to the recovery of the nation. We also embarked on an ambitious programme of project development including major funding bids to expand our capacity to deliver the Management Plan objectives. We wait to see how these will be affected by the dramatic changes of the last few months. The Partnership continues to face immense challenges ranging from pressure for damaging development to climate change. We cannot tackle these alone and we rely on a much wider Council of Partners group - volunteers, like-minded organisations, and our funding partners, DEFRA and the nine Conserving and enhancing the natural beauty local authorities. We are hugely grateful for your of the North Wessex Downs is the statutory continued support - thank you. responsibility of nine local authorities in Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. They come together with community, farming, conservation, recreation, tourism and heritage representatives to make up the governing Ted Hiscocks Council of Partners. Chairman, North Wessex The Council of Partners meets three times a year Downs AONB Council of and the smaller Management Working Group, Partners (June 2020) which guides the work of the AONB staff unit, four times a year. 2 North Wessex Downs AONB - Annual Review 2019-2020 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE • reform governance to increase diversity and The Landscapes Review emphasise the national status of protected landscapes; Fulfilling a commitment in its 25 Year Environment • ground action in data: regular and robust Plan, in May 2018 the Government commissioned an assessment of the state of nature and natural independent review of National Parks and Areas of capital to inform priorities; and Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). The Landscapes • double national funding for AONBs. Review was led by Julian Glover supported by an advisory panel. In September 2019 the Panel published Responding to the Review its report. The Review says AONBs should be renamed Alongside other AONBs and National Parks we have National Landscapes and it makes 27 proposals under warmly welcomed the Review’s recognition of the five main themes: value of designated landscapes and its ambition Landscapes alive for nature and beauty - a for their future. The North Wessex Downs AONB “renewed mission” for National Landscapes to Partnership has discussed the recommendations. “recover and enhance nature”. Some are controversial, or dependent on legislation Landscapes for everyone - National Landscapes being enacted, while others offer more immediate should “fulfil their original mission for people, opportunities to rethink what we do and how. providing unrivalled opportunities for enjoyment, Elsewhere in this Annual Report you will find examples spiritual refreshment and in turn supporting the of how we have begun to consider how we can nation’s health and wellbeing”. respond to these, for example encouraging more people to explore and access the AONB has been one Living in landscapes - National Landscapes should foster of the prime motivations for organising our first North “vibrant communities” by offering meaningful social and Wessex Downs Walking Festival. economic support for the people who live in them. More special places - designate new National Landscapes and a new National Forest, and support some existing AONBs to become National Parks. New AONB Management New ways of working - strengthen AONBs with new purposes, powers and resources. Plan 2019-24 We were pleased to see twelve of the fourteen proposals we submitted with our fellow National The AONB Partnership Parks and AONBs as part of the South East and East has a new statutory Protected Landscapes Forum reflected in the final Management Plan to Report. Among the most significant recommendations guide the work of the are to: partners, the AONB Unit and others over • set up a National Landscapes Service to oversee the next five years. National Parks and AONBs (National Landscapes), co-ordinate activity and hold them to account; Following approval by the Council of • strengthen the Section 85 Duty of Regard; Partners in March 2019, the North Wessex Downs • amend and align the statutory purposes of AONB Management Plan 2019-24 was adopted National Parks and AONBs; by all the nine local authority partners, designed, • strengthen the status of Management Plans in law; printed and formally launched at our Annual Forum • strengthen planning protection for AONBs and in November. make them statutory consultees; The DEFRA 25 Year Environment Plan, the • encourage single development plans across larger Landscapes Review and the new arrangements for AONBs; Environmental Land Management to replace the • ensure a strong focus on nature recovery, with a Common Agricultural Policy offer opportunities central role in Nature Recovery Networks and the for us to guide public funding and other support new system of environmental land management towards achieving AONB objectives for landscape support; enhancement, heritage conservation, nature • include National Trails within the National recovery and carbon storage. The Management Landscapes family; Plan responds to these emerging opportunities by identifying, for the first time, specific priorities for • work much harder to encourage a wider and landscape management interventions in each of more diverse range of visitors from the whole of the AONB’s seven landscape character types. This society, emphasising health and wellbeing benefits, will need to be supplemented by more detailed volunteering and sustainable tourism; mapping and targeting of interventions. www.northwessexdowns.org.uk 3 MAKING CONNECTIONS The First North Wessex Downs Walking Festival - June 2019 Over 120 people booked on walks during our very first Walking Festival and we were delighted that all our scheduled walks went ahead, with many fully booked, despite quite appalling weather for the first week. Fourteen events took place across the AONB over 16 days and were led and supported by volunteers, local organisations and team members. Through the Festival we aimed to raise the profile of the North Wessex Downs and the top-class walking country on offer here, and to encourage residents and visitors to explore and learn more about the area. Furthermore, we wanted to build relationships with groups and residents of the AONB and to gain experience for the future. Everyone Feedback from walkers was very positive with over 90% of respondents saying they and everything ‘thoroughly enjoyed’ their walk. Nearly 70% said they learned something new about the superb. Lots of North Wessex Downs while 55% said they discovered new parts of the AONB. 24% of respondents stated that they did not know about the AONB before the Festival. interesting information about area etc Promotional activity resulted in increased engagement through our social media platforms and drove extra traffic to our website. For example, followers on Facebook before and during increased by 30% during the promotion period and website traffic year on year was up by walk. about 45%. Following such positive feedback, engagement and the clear enthusiasm from participants, walk leaders and others we decided to organise a festival for 2020. By mid-March, 28 walks had been planned with help from 19 external organisations and included (among others) literary, wildlife, family-friendly and wheelchair- accessible routes. Unfortunately, the public health crises around COVID-19 meant that our plans had to change - but we are determined not to waste the efforts made by staff and volunteers so we intend to put the walking festival back on the calendar in 2021. Watch this space! Walk leaders excellent. Very interesting snippets of local history given en route. Walk paced just right. Scenery stunning © C Hoey New Visitor Leaflet Reviewed, redesigned and reprinted ready for April 2020, our visitor leaflet features a beautiful new map including “20 Places Not to Miss” highlighted with photography and descriptions.