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

Volume 1: LCA7A Landscape Character Types and Areas