Introduction
Objectives of the Study
The Project Brief acknowledged that there is a need to try and test new and alternative ways of finding out and recording what local people, unaffiliated to any organisations and interest groups, think of their local landscape, what they value and how they would like to see the future shaped.
The project therefore set out to trial a particular methodology which could be applied without the commitment of large resources. The objective was to test the value of such an approach, to enable its strengths and weaknesses to be identified and to use the results not only to inform the landscape character assessment process within Test Valley Borough, but also to inform the national debate on how to best engage the public in landscape issues and in influencing change.
The specific objectives of community and stakeholder involvement, as set out in the Project Brief were:
To record the perceptions and values that members of the local community attach to their landscape
To use the process to encourage and develop links between rural and urban sectors of the community
To help create a greater level of public understanding and awareness of issues affecting the landscape and those aspects that create the landscape character
To involve the local community in determining the most appropriate broad strategies and guidelines for the landscape, through land management and development policy and control
To inform the Local Strategic Partnerships of environmental aspects of the Borough and County Community Strategies