36 - Southern Pennines : Detailed Statements of Environmental Opportunity

This section expands on the Headline Statements of Environmental Opportunity and provides further detail on each of the Statements of Environmental Opportunity.

SEO 1

SEO 1: Safeguard, manage and enhance the large areas of open, expansive moorland and the internationally important habitats and species they support, as well as protecting soils and water resources.

For example by:

• Restoring and improving ecological links between moorland habitats (blanket bog, upland heathland, species-rich flushes and mires), for example through introducing responsive grazing regimes, to improve the condition of the vegetation and achieve a strong and resilient ecological network.
• Restoring degraded areas of blanket bog to active sphagnum-dominated bog to promote peat formation.
• Enhancing the full range of moorland habitats to ensure that they support the internationally important assemblage of bird species, allowing the population size to be maintained and, where possible, increased.
• Retaining water or managing run-off by re-wetting moorland (for example through blocking grips, but in ways that do not adversely impact on archaeological evidence or access) to bring blanket bog back into favourable ecological and hydrological condition.
• Restoring degraded heathland communities dominated by mat grass to dwarf shrub communities, introducing sustainable grazing regimes to avoid poaching of soils and aid water infiltration, and ensuring that burning and cutting programmes will promote structural and biological diversity as well as avoiding loss of peaty soils through erosion or oxidation.
• Preventing and controlling wildfires through a collaborative fire control plan.
• Discouraging works or development that reduce the sense of remoteness and ‘wildness’ of the moorlands.

SEO 2

SEO 2: Manage and enhance the pastoral character of the moorland fringes, lower hills and valleys, with their mosaics of pastures and meadows and their strong field patterns defined by drystone walls, to improve ecological networks and strengthen landscape character.

For example by:

• Maintaining pastoral land uses and encouraging more extensive and appropriate grazing management.
• Enhancing moorland fringe habitats, to increase species rich grasslands and scrub with varied hydrology, to enhance plant diversity and in particular to provide feeding and nesting to aid the recovery of the twite population.
• Encouraging the expansion and creation of a more ecologically connected patchwork of grasslands – unimproved pastures, rushy pastures, species-rich pastures and meadows – in particular on the moorland fringes and higher shelves of land.
• Introducing flexibility into land management, including less intensive grazing regimes, to encourage a more diverse range of habitats and vegetation types and structure to develop, thus enabling habitats to respond to climate change effects and allowing species to move into more suitable locations.

• Retaining and restoring historic patterns of drystone walls on the moorland fringes, on upland pastures, around farmsteads and settlements, and along tracks.

SEO 3

SEO 3: Protect the comprehensive range of historic landscape features for their cultural value and the contribution they make to local distinctiveness and sense of identity.

For example by:

• Retaining and protecting the evidence of past uses of the moorland, in particular the significant prehistoric carved stones on Rombalds Moor and elsewhere, and the early packhorse trails, medieval boundary stones, and navvy villages associated with building the reservoirs.
• Retaining evidence of the historic water management systems and interpreting the history of the water supply for industry, transport and drinking water.
• Ensuring that any restoration or conversion of structures such as mills and bridges takes into account the presence of bats, especially Daubenton’s bat, which take advantage of breeding and roosting sites close to water.
• Bringing waterbodies such as mill ponds into sound management to protect local populations of crayfish.
• Maintaining the visible evidence of the historic environment of the moorland fringes and valleys, in particular retaining historic field patterns defined by drystone walls, farmsteads, laithe houses, barns, weavers’ cottages, mill buildings, terraced houses, chapels and artefacts associated with canals, mills and factories.
• Retaining the complex settlement pattern that reveals change over time, keeping the contrast between densely populated valleys and the backdrop of woodlands, pastures and moorland.
• Preserving evidence of the particular pattern of miner-farming in the Rossendale Hills including small-holdings and squatter settlements.
• Conserving archaeological features through management including sustainable grazing regimes and scrub clearance.
• Improving access to and interpretation of historic sites and features, to reveal their role in the development of the landscape over time, for the enjoyment and understanding of the public.
• Ensuring that the repair, restoration or conversion of vernacular buildings is carried out with due regard to their historic interest using local sandstones (limestones in the west) with sandstone flags for roofs and using appropriate styles and techniques.

SEO 4

SEO 4: Improve opportunities for the enjoyment and understanding of the landscape and to experience a sense of escapism and inspiration, while also conserving the qualities of the landscape and its valuable historic and wildlife features.

For example by:

• Maintaining the high level of public access with extensive areas of open access land and the dense network of rights of way, with clear but discreet signposting where necessary.
• Managing visitor pressures and ensuring that paths are adequately surfaced and maintained to prevent undue erosion.
• Improving access to selected areas, in particular to the many reservoirs, to meet the needs of diverse audiences.
• Encouraging more people to visit the distinctive open countryside for quiet enjoyment, using sustainable transport where possible, to enable them to improve health as well as enjoy and understand their surroundings.
• Restoring the historic canal networks and improving access.
• Finding solutions to managing the Pennine Way and Pennine Bridleway to ensure a high-quality experience for all users, while protecting sensitive habitats and vulnerable ground-nesting birds, and controlling illegal activities such as fly-tipping.
• Managing and controlling wildfires, fly-tipping and illegal off-roading through a coordinated approach.
• Providing interpretation of the many geodiversity features of the area, and the role that geology plays in the historic development and land uses in the area.
• Providing interpretation of historic buildings and artefacts to bring out their role in the development of the landscape over time, facilitating access where appropriate.

SEO 5

SEO 5: Protect the strong relationship between landscape and the underlying geology, the land uses it supports and its significance to the cultural identity of the area.

For example by:

• Maintaining key views of landform and geological features, and using semi-natural landcover to enhance and support biodiversity but not obscure landform features, such as open moorland with rock outcrops.
• Using local stone for field boundaries and farmsteads so that their relationship to underlying geology is revealed.
• Identifying characteristic features of the Carboniferous geology both within and outside designated sites, and keeping important geological exposures visible, such as quarry faces, cuttings, outcrops and stream sections, and, where appropriate, accessible.

Additional opportunity 1

Additional opportunity 1: Manage existing woodlands and extend broadleaved woodland cover in appropriate locations to help deliver climate change mitigation, improve water quality and supply, improve biodiversity, provide biomass, and strengthen landscape character.

For example by:

• Restoring, expanding and linking existing fragmented areas of broadleaved woodland and wood pasture, especially on valley sides.
• Encouraging creation of upland woodland and wood pasture on valley sides, in cloughs and gills, to stabilise banks, reduce erosion, capture carbon and increase wildlife value.
• Ensuring that existing woodlands are actively managed to improve carbon sequestration, enhance biodiversity and potentially provide sources of woodfuel, as well as providing new access opportunities where appropriate.
• Ensuring that new woodlands are created in suitable locations and include native species that are suitable for the physical location, thus contributing to the biodiversity resource, making the habitats more resilient to climate change, avoiding damage to historic features and strengthening landscape character.