Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland - Landscape and Woodland Strategy

The Strategy (published February 2001) identifies eighteen distinctive character areas within the two counties, and including the City of Leicester. It provides guidelines for conserving and enhancing these distinctive landscapes and expanding the woodland cover of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland in ways appropriate to each landscape character area.

Introduction and Executive Summary | Full Strategy (PDF)

Part of the richness of the English countryside lies in its variety of landscapes and the way in which the landscape can change across a short distance, so that even within a single county several areas of distinctively different landscape character may be identified.

Landscape character is something which exists everywhere. It is an expression of pattern within the landscape resulting from particular combinations of natural and historical factors which make one place different from another. Landscape character areas are areas which have a unity of character and a distinctive sense of place when viewed from a county-wide perspective. Some landscape character areas are well known - for example within Leicestershire and Rutland, the Wolds, Charnwood Forest and the Vale of Catmose are terms which form part of our everyday language. But landscape character exists everywhere, even though it may be easier to recognise in some areas than others and even though some areas may be perceived as being more attractive than others. The individual distinctiveness of landscape character areas is weakened by such things as the standardisation of agricultural practices, unsympathetic development, and the loss of local landscape features.

The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Landscape and Woodland Strategy identifies eighteen distinctive character areas within the two counties, and including the City of Leicester. The Strategy provides guidelines for conserving and enhancing these distinctive landscapes.

Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland together form one of the least wooded areas of England, with only 3.3% woodland cover (Forestry Commission, 1983). Current Government policy is to achieve a steady expansion of the national woodland area and the Strategy also looks at ways of expanding the woodland cover of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland in ways appropriate to each landscape character area.

Most of the land within Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland is privately owned and managed, and key decisions affecting its appearance are taken by individuals. The Strategy aims to inform landowners, farmers, planners, developers and individuals of the unique character of their "patch", and to provide guidelines for the management of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland landscape. District councils may also wish to use the landscape character approach of the Strategy to develop Supplementary Planning Guidance. The Strategy’s guidelines are not an attempt to preserve an unchanged landscape, nor to return it to some idealised historical past. Change is inevitable. The challenge is to accommodate change whilst maintaining distinctive local differences in landscape character.

It is not intended in this document to give specific technical advice on countryside and woodland management, but it is proposed that such information will be made available in partnership with others.

The Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Landscape and Woodland Strategy sits within the context of the Structure Plan and seeks to give guidance on issues which are outside the planning control process but which affect the appearance and character of the landscape.

The Strategy assesses the nature of the existing landscape and woodland of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and describes eighteen distinctive landscape character areas within the three authorities’ areas.

The character area boundaries and the Strategy document have been the subject of detailed consultations with the district councils. A broad range of other organisations with land use interests, and the general public, have also been consulted.

The Strategy has three main objectives :

Guidelines and mechanisms are set out for achieving each of these objectives. The Strategy also sets out objectives and guidelines for individual landscape character areas, with the emphasis on conserving and enhancing existing landscape features and increasing woodland cover in ways appropriate to the character of each area.

Partnerships are essential to the implementation of the Strategy and the participation of a wide range of organisations is identified as being necessary to achieve the Strategy’s objectives.

As much of the land within the Strategy area is in private ownership, the objectives of the Strategy must be achieved not through direct control but through indirect influence and persuasion and an opportunistic approach to partnership working. In the light of this the Strategy has not set quantified targets. However, mechanisms for monitoring landscape change are in place.

The full strategy is available as a PDF from here.

All of the maps used in figures within the Strategy are subject to copyright. Please refer to the Copyright Page for additional information. Strategy Copyright Page

Reading or buying the paper copy of the Landscape and Woodland Strategy
Copies of the Landscape and Woodland Strategy are available for reference in the main Leicestershire Libraries, please phone 0116 305 6988 to find your nearest library with a copy.

Copies of the Landscape and Woodland Strategy can be obtained at a cost of £30.00 from: