Local Requirements

Landscape Proposals/ Landscape Visual Impact Assessment

Required for:

  • Any development that may result in adverse impacts on landscape / townscape character and / or visual amenity.
  • Includes developments that
    • result in the loss of existing landscape features,
    • are visually prominent in the local or wider landscape or
    • result in changes to field patterns.
  • All major developments not in town centre / urban locations

Note: Proposals for major development within or affecting an AONB need to be accompanied by an AONB Statement of Need.

Guidance

Any development that is likely to have a significant impact on the surrounding landscape and/or townscape character will need supporting information to show how these impacts have been assessed and how the development has been designed to address or mitigate these impacts.

The assessment work should be proportionate to the development it is assessing. It could range from a full assessment including photomontages, to a short, focussed appraisal of the impacts on a certain characteristic or view.

Any LVIA should be carried out by a qualified landscape professional in accordance with the Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, 3rd Edition 2013 (GLVIA3) LI/IEMA.

Prior to carrying out the assessment, applicants are strongly encouraged to agree the scope of the LVIA through consultation with us and, if appropriate, other relevant consultation bodies. This should include agreeing the number and location of viewpoints for assessment. If appropriate, the 'Type' of visualisations required as outlined in the Landscape Institute Technical Guidance on Visual Representation of Development Proposals (TGN 06/19) should also be agreed.

If your submission is accompanied by a LVIA as part of a formal Environmental Statement under EIA Regulations, we may require applicants to provide one set of good quality hard copies of visualisations (for example photomontages). This should be at the appropriate sheet size for viewing at a comfortable distance, according to latest best practice technical guidance published by the Landscape Institute (LI TGN 06/19).

Landscape proposals should be proportionate to the development that they are supporting. They should respect and respond to existing landscape features and characteristics. They should seek to fully mitigate any adverse landscape or visual effects resulting from a proposed development and create a high quality site environment.

For full and outline applications, submissions should be supported by an Outline Landscape Scheme showing general approaches to landscape treatments, and an outline plan for the establishment and ongoing management of the proposals. Full landscape details would then be sought by condition if approved.

For Reserved Matters applications, submissions will need to be supported by a fully detailed Landscape Scheme including details of establishment and ongoing management of the landscape proposals.

Where there are requirements for biodiversity mitigation / compensation / enhancement measures on a site (generated from the EcIA) these should be incorporated in a combined Landscape and Ecological Management Plan (LEMP).

Links to Useful Guidance