LCA10B King’s Somborne Chalk Downland
Landscape Strategy and Guidelines
King’s Somborne Chalk Downland is distinguished by its openness and more limited vegetation cover. The overall strategy is therefore to conserve the openness whilst restoring a pattern of hedgerows and small copses across the downs at King’s Somborne Chalk Downland.
Land Management
Landscape Distinctiveness
Maintain areas of remoteness and tranquillity
Protect significant open vistas from visual intrusion
Agriculture
Seek opportunities to retain remaining small areas of pasture
Discourage further amalgamation of fields and loss of hedgerows
Encourage sustainable farming practices with a view to minimising the impact of new farming infrastructure and methods including spraying and fertiliser applications
Encourage new farm buildings to be well sited and integrated into the landscape
Encourage careful siting of new energy crops in keeping with the local landscape pattern and to create a positive contribution to the landscape
Hedgerows
Restore lost and fragmented hedgerows on former hedgerow lines
Woodland and Trees
Seek opportunities for new woodland planting to link existing wooded areas
Promote good management of woodlands
Biodiversity
Conserve, restore and manage remnant areas of unimproved chalk grassland
Avoid further erosion of farmland biodiversity due to intensive agricultural methods
Seek opportunities to extend and link unimproved grassland and woodland habitats
Historic Landscapes
Avoid further erosion of historic landscapes due to modern agricultural methods
Protect and enhance parkland features
Seek improved management and maintenance of farmsteads and farms
Land Use and Development
Built Developments
Development to respond to the local characteristics of the landscapeInfrastructure
Seek opportunities to enhance roadside planting and minimise visual and noise intrusion
Avoid intrusive development of tall and large structures except where they can be successfully integrated into the landscape
Seek to minimise the visual intrusion and suburbanising effect arising from highway infrastructure
Recreation, Tourism and Access
Manage any growth in horse related recreational activities to prevent deterioration in landscape features