A Landscape Strategy for Lancashire - Landscape Character Assessment

1. Introduction

In October 1999, Environmental Resources Management (ERM) were commissioned by Lancashire County Council, in partnership with the Countryside Agency, District Councils, Blackburn with Darwen Unitary Authority, North Yorkshire County Council and Craven District Council, to undertake a comprehensive integrated landscape assessment of Lancashire including the urban areas and to produce a landscape strategy informed by the landscape character assessment process.

The overall study consists of two separate reports; a Landscape Character Assessment and a Landscape Strategy. This first report, the landscape character assessment, is an objective description and classification of the Lancashire landscape. It forms the basis for the evaluation and guidance provided in the landscape strategy.

The timescale of the Landscape Strategy is to be concurrent with and reviewed during the review period of the next Joint Lancashire Structure Plan 2001-20016.

1.1 The Scope and Context for this Study

The study area is shown on Figure 1. It includes all of the administrative county of Lancashire, and Blackburn with Darwen unitary authority and part of the Craven District of North Yorkshire up to the boundary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This area was included to provide detailed assessment of the whole of the Bowland Fells, Bowland Fringe and Pendle Hill and Lancashire Valleys Countryside Character Areas as defined in the Character Map of England. For the purposes of the report, the study is referred to as a Landscape Strategy for Lancashire.

The landscape character assessment uses as a starting point the Countryside Agencys Character Map of England (Figure 2), and incorporates as far as possible information from a number of earlier landscape assessments carried out across the county, as well as making reference to studies in adjacent areas. (Figure 3). In 1993 the County Council carried out a landscape evaluation for the purposes of the Structure Plan Review based on Countryside Commission guidance ^([1]) to identify landscape character areas within the County. These landscape character areas have formed the basis for landscape policy in the Lancashire Structure Plan 1991-2006. Landscape character assessments have also been carried out in recent years in the two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (Arnside/Silverdale and the Forest of Bowland), in the South Pennines (Countryside Agency Character Area 36) in West Lancashire (Natursl Areasmand Areas of Landscape History Importance) and Wyre Districts, and in the adjacent authorities of Sefton and Cumbria. Significantly, this assessment has been informed by the historic landscape assessment of Lancashire carried out by the County Archaeology Service, which commenced in January 1999. The project characterised the distinctive, historic dimension of Lancashires urban and rural environment and is complementary to this landscape character assessment.

The Flow Diagram shows the relationship between landscape assessment, historic and strategy.

This assessment draws together previous work, producing a comprehensive integrated character assessment using up-to-date recommended methodology. Where existing District guidance is operative as in West Lancashire, the Landscape Strategy will complement it and should encourage the production of further detailed District assessments and guidance.

1.2 Purpose of the Landscape Character Assessment

This landscape character assessment adopts an holistic approach which considers the landscapes of Lancashire as a mosaic of different landscape types and character areas, each with particular characteristics and subject to particular forces for change. The assessment is intended to provide an understanding of the areas landscape and to form a basis for the landscape strategy and guidelines.

The study as a whole will inform the new Structure Plan and local plan policies on landscape, as well as supplementary planning guidance. It will also assist local planning officers in development control and will guide and inform project planning and landscape management by the Lancashire Countryside Service. The strategy is also intended to fulfil a wider remit by helping to promote public awareness of landscape character and the importance of conservation and enhancement of landscape.

The landscape character assessment has four main objectives:

      to outline how the landscape of Lancashire has evolved in terms of physical forces and human influences;

      to classify the landscape into distinct landscape types identifying key characteristics and sensitivities and providing principles to guide landscape change;

      to describe the current appearance of the landscape, classifying it into distinct zones of homogenous character, summarising the key features of each landscape character area;

      to describe the principal urban landscape types across the County, highlighting their historical development.

1.3 Approach and Methodology

The study used accepted, systematic methods of landscape assessment ^([2]) supplemented by the new guidance on landscape character assessment ^([3]). The main tasks were:

      familiarisation with the study area through overlay mapping, desk study and compilation of material onto detailed field survey forms.

     site survey including completion of field survey forms for character areas, mapping of landscape types and landscape character areas at 1:50,000, and preparation of a photographic record.

     background research into the geological and physical evolution, human influences on the landscape, and ongoing land use change and development pressures.

      consultations with key individuals and organisations to assist the team in understanding local landscape character and forces for change.

      report preparation, including descriptions of landscape character types, landscape character areas and the physical and human influences which have shaped their character.

Development of a sound landscape classification laid the foundations for all subsequent work.

1.4 Structure of the Report

This report presents a full description and classification of the landscapes within the study area, together with an analysis of its geology and topography, and the historic evolution of patterns of land cover, land use and settlement. It will provide a valuable source of information for planning and land management in Lancashire.

The landscape patterns that we see today have evolved gradually over thousands of years, through both natural and human forces. The Report begins, in Section 2, by describing the principal influences that have shaped the landscape in the county. Important and distinctive geological, cultural, historic and habitat features are highlighted, and their distribution is described.

This sets the scene for Section 3, which reviews landscape character across the study area, presenting the classification of landscape character types, urban landscape types and character areas and drawing attention to those characteristics and features that are particularly distinctive, rare or special. Such characteristics and features may be found even among the non designated landscapes; and an important aspect of the new approach to landscape is to recognise that all landscapes matter.

Section 4 describes the principal urban landscape types found within the study area. The description is accompanied by notes on the evolution of urban form.

The report concludes with a glossary of key terms, a bibliography and acknowledgements of the steering group and consultees who contributed to the study.

^{([1]) Countryside Commission (1987) Landscape Assessment: a Countryside Commission Approach, CCD 18, Countryside Commission, Cheltenham}

^{([2]) Countryside Commission (1993) Landscape Assessment Guidance, CCP 423, Countryside Commission, Cheltenham.}

^{([3]) Countryside Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage (1999) Interim Landscape Character Assessment Guidance.}