LCA5F Wallop Brook River Valley Floor
Landscape Strategy and Guidelines
The Wallop Brook Valley Floor contains nationally significant water meadows and considerable extant remains of its historic landscape within a rich landscape pattern. The overall strategy is therefore to conserve and enhance the small scale water meadow and historic character of Wallop Brook Valley Floor.
Land Management
Landscape Distinctiveness
Maintain the intimate pastoral landscape pattern
Maintain the characteristic water channel and drainage ditches, millstreams and pools
Agriculture
Encourage management of traditional water meadows and reintroduce management of farmland as seasonally wet pastures where appropriate
Resist change from pasture to arable
Discourage merging of remaining smaller fields
Hedgerows
Encourage traditional methods of hedge management
Maintain hedgerow field boundaries
Woodland and Trees
Management of the pollards and lines of poplar, alder and willow
Encourage the retention of hedgerow trees and individual specimens in the landscape
Conserve valley floor wet woodland and promote good woodland management
Biodiversity
Conserve, enhance and manage riparian habitats
Encourage agricultural management that will protect and enhance remnant unimproved grasslands
Protect the water from further damage from pollution, soil erosion and construction projects
Seek opportunities for wetland creation and ditch reinstatement
Avoid manicuring of riverbanks
Historic Landscapes
Maintain valley floor enclosures that run through the heart of the village of Broughton
Land Use and Development
Built Developments
Avoid development up onto valley sides
Avoid loss of separate identity of existing settlements through coalescence and homogeneous design
Infrastructure
Avoid suburbanisation arising from the introduction of inappropriate highway measures
Avoid loss of landscape features through highway improvements
Recreation, Tourism and Access
Seek opportunities for additional access to the river for the public