Landscape Character Assessment

The Council commissioned Land Use Consultants to carry out a Landscape Character Assessment for Wokingham Borough. Consultation on the draft Landscape Character Asessment  took place between 16 June and 4 August 2003. 

 

During this consultation, a range of parties including local residents, government agencies and interested organisations were invited to comment on its findings before the final report was produced. Following the consultation, we considered the responses and adopted the Landscape Character Asessment as Supplementary Planning Guidance. The Supplementary Planning Guidance was adopted by the Executive on 29 April 2004.

 

What is a Landscape Character Asessment? 

 

Landscape Character Asessment is a process that sets out to describe and classify the landscape across England in a systematic way. The assessment takes into account the factors that have helped shape the landscape of Wokingham such as geology, ecology and historic use by man, and outlines broad approaches towards its future conservation and management.

 

 

This report, attached below, contains overview chapters covering physical influences, geology, landform and hydrology, agricultural capability, ecological character and the historic environment. It then characterises the landscape into a series of 14 landscape types and 30 character areas and provides a detailed description of each.

 

There is a clear hierarchy and distinction between landscape types. These have broadly similar patterns of geology, landform, settlement etc. in each area in which they occur, eg. River Valley and character areas, which are unique, discrete geographical areas of the landscape type eg. Blackwater River Valley.

 

 

The results of the study will help guide landscape management decisions, and also help implement the countryside and landscape policies of the Wokingham District Local Plan. The Supplementary Planning Guidance will also feed into the Review of the Local Plan through the Local  Development  Framework. The Landscape Character Asessment  is a large document and we have also approved as Supplementary Planning Guidance a summary document. This provides basic information on each each area's key characteristics, gives guidance on which policies of the development plan it supplements and indicates how Landscape Character Asessment can be applied in the decision making process.

 

 

A copy of the Adopted Landscape Character Asessment and a summary is attached at the end of this page. A copy of the Report of the Workshop for the Landscape Character Asessment is also attached. A Report of Consultation on the Supplementary Planning Guidance is available in paper from the Development Plans team in Policy and Partnerships.

 

To read the attached pdf files, you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader. This software is available free from the Adobe website.