CPRE Leicestershire

Why Leicestershire CPRE needs your help to build a detailed picture of our county's unique landscape heritage...

(Countryside near Burton-on-the-Wolds, looking west towards Charnwood Forest, with the town of Loughborough in the middle distance on the right.)

LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT: 1 - THE WIDE PICTURE

In November 2006 the United Kingdom became the 27th signatory to the European Landscape Convention. The Convention aims to promote landscape protection, management and planning. It encourages public authorities to adopt policies and measures at local, regional and national level that will work in harmony with the landscape. Shaun Spiers, CPRE's Chief Executive, said, "This important treaty recognises that conserving our varied and beautiful rural landscapes matters to us all. We look to the Government to come up with the policies, in land use planning and elsewhere, to ensure the Convention amounts to deeds as well as words." The Articles of this important convention may be read at http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/176.htm

Here are some key quotes from the Treaty:-

'Developments in agriculture, forestry, industrial and mineral production techniques and in regional planning, town planning, transport, infrastructure, tourism and recreation and, at a more general level, changes in the world economy have in many cases led to the destruction of landscapes, or rendered them featureless.'

'the landscape is important as a component of the environment and of people's surroundings in both town and country, whether the landscape in question is ordinary or of outstanding beauty. The public is accordingly encouraged to take an active part in landscape management and planning, and to feel it has responsibility for what happens to the landscape.'

'Landscape must become a mainstream political concern, since it plays an important role in the well-being of Europeans who are no longer prepared to tolerate the alteration of their surroundings by technical and economic developments in which they have had no say. Landscape is the concern of all and lends itself to democratic treatment, particularly at local and regional level.'

'If people are given an active role in decision-making on landscape, they are more likely to identify with the areas and towns where they spend their working and leisure time. If they have more influence on their surroundings, they will be able to reinforce local and regional identity and distinctiveness and this will bring rewards in terms of individual, social and cultural fulfilment.'

'Modern lifestyles mean that people are increasingly keen to live in unspoilt surroundings again and to preserve their heritage, both natural and cultural. Thanks to this growing social pressure, landscape is gaining - or regaining - prominence and beginning to be perceived as a key component of environmental policies.'

LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT: 2 - THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PICTURE

Landscape Character Assessments operate at different levels. At National and Regional scale only the broadest differences in landscape character are recognised. At the intermediate scale are those landscape features identifiable at the county level, while at the local or parish scale the smallest landscape features are identifiable. The national landscape character map for the UK can be viewed at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/images/es/jca-map-web.jpg

An excellent free guide to the process of assessment can be obtained from Natural England, being the 'Landscape Character Assessment Guidance for England and Scotland', published in 2002. This instructive pack can be obtained by 'phoning 0870-120-6466, quoting the title and reference CAX84F.

The map below, reproduced by courtesy of the Countryside Agency web team and copyright of Natural England, shows landscape character at the regional scale for the East Midlands:

© Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Natural England 100046223 2006

KEY:
30	Southern Magnesian Limestone	64	Potteries & Churnet Valley
37	Yorkshire Southern Pennine Fringe	69	Trent Valley Washlands
38	Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield	70	Melbourne Parklands
39	Humberhead Levels	71	Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield
42	Lincolnshire Coast & Marshes	72	Mease/Sence Lowlands
43	Lincolnshire Wolds	73	Charnwood
44	Central Lincolnshire Vale	74	Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire Wolds
45	Northern Lincolnshire Edge with Coversands	75	Kesteven Uplands
46	The Fens	88	Bedfordshire & Cambridgeshire Claylands
47	Southern Lincolnshire Edge	89	Northamptonshire Vales
48	Trent and Belvoir Vales	91	Yardley-Whittlewood Ridge
49	Sherwood	92	Rockingham Forest
50	Derbyshire Peak Fringe and Lower Derwent	93	High Leicestershire
52	White Peak	94	Leicestershire Vales
54	Manchester Pennine Fringe	95	Northamptonshire Uplands
		96	Dunsmore and Feldon
		107	Cotswolds

(Note - the version on the Natural England website is interactive. By clicking onto any of the landscape types you will be able to read a short definition of that area.)

Given the considerable threat to Leicestershire's countryside by an enormous increase in house building we stand to lose a huge amount of greenfield land. For example, planning projections call for 760 dwellings per annum in Charnwood, 345 for Harborough, 160 for Melton, 460 for Hinckley & Bosworth and 480 for North-West Leicestershire. (See separate Leicestershire CPRE comments on the 'Three Cities Sub-Area and 'Growth Point Bids'.) The necessity of identifying and effectively ear-marking local landscapes as valuable and irreplaceable assets is therefore urgent, which is why Leicestershire CPRE needs volunteers.

(Grange Farm development, between Loughborough, Beaumanor and the hamlet of Woodthorpe)

It is worth noting that the '2006 State of the Region Report', published by the East Midlands Regional Assembly, has this to say: 'Eight out of the 23 designated Countryside Character areas in the region have seen marked changes that are inconsistent with underlying landscape character. Another 10 have seen some changes inconsistent with character. Only 5 of the 23 are considered to have had the character of their landscape enhanced during the period 1990 - 1998.'

LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT: 3 - LOCAL LANDSCAPE DESIGNATION

To gain some idea of what landscape character assessment involves at a much more local level, refer to the Leicestershire County Council's 'Landscape and Woodland Strategy'. This link also refers to a February 2006 update on the report.

Two other very worthwhile websites are 'Countryside Quality Counts' where there are many useful landscape assessment reports and the 'Landscape Character Network'

A worrying expression we hear more of these days is 'environmental capacity'. In many cases we rapaciously exceed the carrying capacity of our environment in that we are living beyond our environmental means. Whereas there is supposed to be an equal synergy between our economic, social and environmental needs the perception is anything but. In fact it is the delineation of 'wants' from 'needs' that society has to face in an honest way. Quite how future generations will judge how 'sustainable' we are today is best left to your imagination. Sitting back and doing nothing is not an option - as members of CPRE well know.

(Looking west towards the valley of the River Soar from Paudy Lane, Barrow-on-Soar)

Some members and associates of CPRE will already have undertaken work toward compiling a Village Design Statement. Such studies illustrate how important a knowledge of landscape character can be at the local level. The aim of landscape character assessments is to provide a framework for sustainable development in that natural assets can be recognised and conserved for future generations. The process thus informs Local Development Framework policies where tough decisions to consider various forms of development have to be made, such as housing, mineral extraction, waste disposal and recycling, wind energy and telecommunications.

Unless we put down markers at parish level for those special places that might otherwise be labelled disparagingly as 'wasteland' or 'scrub' we will lose valuable habitats for local flora and fauna and places that give unique and local distinctiveness. If we undervalue such assets we stand every chance of losing them - forever.

There is additional information on the subject of Landscape Character Assessment on our CPRE National Office website. If you wish to take this forward and with a group of friends carry out a local landscape assessment you will find CPRE's Action Pack 'Unlocking the Landscape' invaluable.

Additionally, as a spin-off, CPRE members and friends might consider getting involved in Leicestershire's Historic Landscape Characterisation Project. The Project Officer at County Hall will welcome photographic evidence and details about fieldwork will become available in early 2007. Please contact Leicestershire CPRE Branch if you wish to act as a volunteer for this worthwhile work.

('Old John' folly and War Memorial, Bradgate Park.)

Did you know that Charnwood Forest has in the past been the subject of a drive to designate this upland area as an AONB - an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty? (The Hobhouse Report of 1947 that eventually led to the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949 listed Charnwood Forest as a possibility for inclusion in the proposed National Parks). Some years prior to that the 1932 Leicestershire Regional Planning Report recommended that the area should be preserved as a National Park. Currently, Charnwood Forest is described as an 'APAC' - an Area of Particularly Attractive Countryside'. The East Midlands Regional Plan seeks to lose Charnwood's APAC status and instead designate the area as a 'Regional Park'. This move does recognise that Charnwood Forest is under pressure on all sides from development of one sort or another and indeed the Government's Planning Policy Statement No. 7 acknowledges that there are areas of locally important landscape in need of protection. The nearest example of a 'Regional Park' is the River Nene Regional Park Initiative. Such areas are prone to 'development' of a different kind and CPRE members will need to be vigilant in the case of Charnwood Forest in general and Bradgate Park in particular. Thus, Local Landscape Designations will inform strategic planning as part of the process of Environmental Assessment.

(Broombriggs, looking south towards 'Old John' and Benscliffe Wood.)

(Lower Broombriggs Farm, Woodhouse Eaves)

(Ulverscroft Lane, Charnwood Forest. It is hard to believe that the M1 Motorway was originally to have taken a line through the Ulverscroft Valley. The fact that it didn't was largely down to Leicestershire CPRE, particularly the efforts of Dr. Frank Foden OBE.)

(Autumn beeches, Roecliffe Hill, Charnwood Forest.)

All photographs copyright of Graham Stocks
Footnote: The photographs for this web page are of locations on my doorstep. Why not send in pictures of your area of the county to PO Box 7986, Loughborough, LE12 8XT or cpre@quorncpre.co.uk?
GS