LCA7A Ashley Downs
Landscape Strategy and Guidelines
The Ashley Downs is distinguished by its wooded scarp slopes and open arable landscape. The overall strategy is therefore to enhance the landscape structure of the arable areas and conserve the pattern of woodland on the scarps within Ashley Downs.
Land Management
Landscape Distinctiveness
Maintain the present sense of remoteness and tranquillity
Agriculture
Discourage further amalgamation of fields and loss of hedgerows
Hedgerows
Seek opportunities to provide hedgerow links with adjacent woodland and replace former hedgerow boundaries
Woodland and Trees
Reinforce pattern of small copses, spinneys and shelter belts
Biodiversity
Conserve, manage and restore chalk grassland
Introduce buffer strips at the edge of arable fields
Historic Landscapes
Ensure the survival of the Roman road earthworks in Combe Bottom
Land Use and Development
Built Developments
Limit development in order to conserve the sense of remoteness and tranquillity
Infrastructure
Development to be small in scale and well sited, taking advantage of vegetation cover, to conserve the sense of remoteness and tranquillity