27th January 2005
The Catalis Centre, Derby, DE24 8UX

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Government policy guidance for the countryside places landscape character and high quality sustainable development at the heart of the new planning system. This one-day workshop explored approaches to developing landscape character based approaches in the preparation and delivery of Local Development Frameworks. It was intended to be of particular interest to landscape planners, planning policy and development control officers.

There is an opportunity to use positive objectives for sustainable development as the basis of planning, setting out what will be welcome and under what conditions. All development in rural areas should be well designed and inclusive, in keeping and scale with its location, and sensitive to the character of the countryside. Landscape Character Assessment provides a spatial framework and rich information resource to guide positive planning policies and encourage better quality and more sustainable development.

There are additional challenges in those areas that currently use locally defined landscape designations. The Government believes that carefully drafted, criteria-based policies in Local Development Documents, utilising tools such as Landscape Character Assessment, should provide sufficient protection for these areas, without the need for local designation.

This workshop was opportunity to explore these issues. During the morning, presentations focused on the policy context of the new planning system and provided examples of current landscape character based work in progress. The afternoon included discussion and sharing of ideas in groups, before the workshop re-convened to share outcomes from the group discussions.

Speakers:

Jane Cecil, The Countryside Agency:
Chair and introduction

Richard Silson, The Planning Cooperative:
'Landscape Character Assessment - what shall we do with it?'

Geoffrey Griffiths, The Living Landscapes Project:
'Landscape sensitivity and local planning: a case study from Shrewsbury and Atcham'

Jason Longhurst, Northamptonsire County Council:
'The Northamptonshire Environmental Character Assessment process: a spatial framework for positive planning'

Bob Connell, West Sussex County Council:
'Landscape character in West Sussex: putting vision, policies and guidance into Local Development Frameworks'