Landscape and settlements checklist
Landscape is about the relationship between people and places
The Chilterns National Landscape is defined by a highly valued landscape, which is both farmed and contains many villages and settlements. The European Landscape Convention, ratified by the UK in 2006 (also called the Florence Convention) defines landscape as: “an area as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors”. Indeed, landscapes are ever-changing and we value them for their contribution to local distinctiveness and sense of place, for their aesthetic and artistic inspiration, and for their contribution to personal wellbeing.
How is landscape protected in England and in National Landscapes?
The rich and protected Chilterns National Landscape contains landscape elements that may be protected in their own right, such as woodlands, orchards, farmsteads and buildings, field boundaries, heritage features (like hillforts) and natural features, including the rolling chalk topography.
Policy and legal protections
| Landscape level of designation | Landscape quality and character – Designation and protections | Other landscape protections and their relevance |
| International | Internationally protected habitats | Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs). These are European designations that have continued post-Brexit. |
| National | Nationally protected habitats
National Parks and National Landscapes (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) |
Others include Historic Parks and Gardens (Registered Landscapes); Scheduled and Ancient Monuments (archaeology); Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs, UK protected habitats); designated Heritage Assets (e.g. listed buildings and conservation areas); Ancient Woodlands; and National Nature Reserves. |
| Local | Designated Areas of Great Landscape Value or locally designated Landscape Value (usually found in local plans) | Non-designated Heritage Assets (e.g. locally listed buildings); County or Local Wildlife Sites; Protected Hedgerows; and Local Nature Reserves. |
Landscape topics to consider in a Neighbourhood Plan
Landscape Character Assement (LCA) data is available from several sources, but you can also ask the planning policy team at your local council for relevant assessments. We recommend that you refer to the various LCAs available for your area as they often contain recommendations, which may greatly assist your planning. You can then consider if you need to include any additional policies to cover landscape elements specific to your Neighbourhood Planning area.
The following steps may help you consider landscape in your Neighbourhood Planning
STEP 1: Identify landscape issues of local concern
- Undertake a desktop study to create your own LCA for your specific area – use Defra’s MAGIC resource to assist you, alongside the relevant Beds/Bucks/Herts/Oxon LCAs (look for the recommendations in each landscape character type).
- Carry out your own survey to identify landscape issues of local concern. A great methodology for ‘identifying landscape issues of local concern’ can be found in Cranbourne Chase National Landscape’s Good Practice Note 9, Using Landscape Character Assessments in Neighbourhood Planning. We have adapted this below to help form a basis for your discussions and research; we have added a few issues of particular interest to the Chilterns.
- Consider Local Green Space designations. Work by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) reported that between 2012 and 2022 a total of 6515 locally valued areas were protected as Local Green Spaces, with 5407 of them (83%) designated by Neighbourhood Plans. CPRE have produced a handy guide: Local Green Space: a tool for people and nature’s wellbeing (February 2022).
| Issue | Example of Policy Response |
| Are there pressures to develop on locally distinctive green areas (e.g. traditional orchards, meadows, etc.) that are valued by the local community? | Propose designation as Local Green Space to protect a locally valued space. This policy protection was first introduced with the National Planning Policy Framework in 2012. |
| In the Chilterns | The Chilterns AONB Management Plan notes the longer-term loss of Victorian cherry orchards in the Chilterns, but with a resurgence in recent times of traditional fruit varieties and community orchards. |
| Are modern developments of a bland design which fail to reflect local distinctiveness in building styles and settlement patterns? | Identify distinctive building styles, materials, features, vernacular details and traditional settlement patterns in a local/ village design statement; require developers to take account of this in the design of new development. |
| In the Chilterns | The Chilterns Buildings Design Guide is often referred to in many planning applications. You can take its useful series of Design Checklists and apply them to your community. |
| Would development within land allocated in the Local Plan obscure or detract from important views that contribute to local distinctiveness and landscape quality? | Identify local iconic views from publicly accessible locations and propose a policy requiring new development to respect these views. |
| In the Chilterns | Local Plans have, in past years, identified land within the National Landscape for development. If ‘key views’ and ‘vistas’ are in place, then the local planning authority must take this into account when allocating land. The Pirton Neighbourhood Plan (North Hertfordshire District) is a good example in which the local community specifically identified cherished views within and towards the Chilterns National Landscape. |
STEP 2: Use landscape evidence to build your Plan
The process will require that you now consider the production of policies. To do this, we recommend you:
- Identify key issues of local landscape concern; for example, there may be degraded sites or Brownfield (previously developed) land which both blights the landscape but also offers remediation opportunities when development comes forward. If you are considering the contribution made by an undeveloped site, you will want to assess its character and this will require an assessment of: (i) its landform/topography; (ii) its ecology/habitats/biodiversity; (iii) its land use; (iv) its field and woodland patterns; (v) its historic and cultural features, including archaeology and field patterns; and (vi) its aesthetic and sensory appraisal and how it fits within the wider landscape. Our summary table below will help you consider these and other factors.
| Local concern/topic/issues | Neighbourhood Development Plan Policy Area/Response/Policy Response |
| Degraded or Brownfield land | A restoration/redevelopment policy anticipating the renewal/redevelopment of this land. Detailed policy content might set out the restoration of the landscape and/or acceptable and selective development within it. |
| The erosion of dark skies/tranquillity | An environmental policy to stipulate when lighting is, or is not, acceptable, and the technical details required when permitted. |
| An erosion of design quality and lack of locally appropriate/distinctive design | Design policy that links with key documents such as the Chilterns Buildings Design Guide and Supplementary Technical Notes on brick, flint and roofing materials. |
| A lack of appropriate affordable housing | A housing policy, linked to the Local Plan and supporting provision of local affordability and/or the allocation of land. |
| The impact of Local Plan (strategic) allocations as already agreed
|
Detailed site specifics in a development management policy that seeks to control certain site aspects, such as green space layout, specific landscape buffers and protected views or vistas across or beyond the site. |
| Development within the setting of the National Landscape
|
Protective policies to ensure that both views out of and into the National Landscape conserve and enhance the special qualities of the AONB. References to the Chilterns Conservation Board’s Position Statements can also be included. |
| The need to promote rural services and retain community uses | Community-based policies to retain community uses and resist their loss by change of use; for example, the conversion of pubs to residential buildings. Such policies can include the criteria against which applications will be assessed. |
| The need to promote rural diversification | Farm diversification policies, promoting new uses and enterprises that sit acceptably within the National Landscape and allow for holiday accommodation, rural business and other enterprises. |
| Solar and other renewable energy sources | Detailed development management policies to control design details when promoting renewables. References to the Chilterns Conservation Board’s Position Statement can also be included. |
| Agricultural and other rural buildings
|
Design details, as deemed appropriate, including specific design areas, such as materials. Reference to the Chilterns Buildings Design Guide can also be included. |
| Settlement boundaries | The creation of a land-use boundary – a line on a map – to define settlement from open countryside. In some cases, both will be within the National Landscape, but the line helps to distinguish between the settlement and the wider landscape, showing and where appropriate infilling may be allowed and where it may be resisted. |
Note – when scoping your policies, it is important to look at the Local Plan and other relevant Local Plan documents. There is no need to replicate these policies, but you can add extra layers of local context and you can refer to them.
Your checklist for landscape and settlements
- Consider the issues and identify areas of local concern.
- Examine your relevant landscape evidence using Landscape Character Assessments (LCAs).
- Is a new policy needed? Will a new Neighbourhood Plan help? Check for any tensions with the existing Local Plan.
- Check your new policy will be ‘in general conformity’ with the landscape policies in the Local Plan (a necessary test for a Neighbourhood Plan).
- Consider a variety of positive landscape strategies, such as hedgerow promotion and enhancement, maintaining rural settlement boundaries, and the promotion of tranquillity and dark skies.
- Consider positive policy wording and land allocations to support the creation of local green spaces, the use of vernacular (local) materials, promote biodiversity, traditional native hedgerows and identifying key views and vistas.
- Consider the use of landscape architects (contact the Landscape Institute to find a qualified landscape architect) when producing any landscape assessment. This may be required if you are allocating sites.
- Discuss these concerns and the emerging policy with the relevant council’s landscape officer and the dedicated Neighbourhood Plans policy team/officer.
- Craft your draft policies for inclusion in the Neighbourhood Plan.