90 - Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge : 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: Protect, manage and enhance the historic landscape and its wealth of sites of heritage interest, including the remnant ridge and furrow, iron-age hill forts, designed parklands and associated country houses, estate villages, farmsteads and houses using traditional building material, for their contribution to landscape character and as a recreational and educational resource.

For example by:

• Conserving historic buildings and structures using traditional techniques and vernacular materials.
• Protecting the area’s distinctive estate villages from development – access to major commuting routes has led to the expansion of most of the larger villages and towns within and adjacent to the Greensand Ridge. This trend is changing the intrinsic character of many of the historic settlements.
• Maintaining historic features associated with parklands, including access routes, traditional walls and bridges, railings, fencing, woodland, veteran trees, wood pasture, hedging and shelterbelts.
• Promoting sustainable access to the Greensand Ridge to users of the Grand Union Canal.
• Promoting the importance of the historic estate landscapes along the Greensand Ridge through enhanced interpretation for education and recreation.
• Protecting and maintaining historic farm buildings, both through reuse in the planning system and by encouraging uptake of agri-environment schemes, to ensure that they maintain their historic character.
• Promoting, as appropriate, the reinstatement of areas of former parkland where these have been converted to arable and restoring areas which are in decline. Managing these areas with livestock where possible, focusing on areas where original parkland trees survive.
• Preserving settlement character, including listed buildings and Arts and Crafts architecture, promoting the use of local vernacular and traditional building materials in restored features, new buildings and highway schemes, including the use of stock bricks, clay tiles and selective use of Greensand in churches and boundary walls.
• Promoting awareness of and mitigation of potential impacts of larger recreational/tourism facilities (for example, Woburn Safari Park Shuttleworth Collection and proposed Center Parcs) that may increase pressures on the local landscape.
• Conserving remaining areas of ridge and furrow through agri- environment agreements.
• Conserving and interpreting the remains of bronze-age hill forts by preventing them from becoming overgrown, or clearing overgrowth where this has already happened, so that they can be clearly seen and their original layout understood.
• Minimising the visitor pressure on iron-age banks and ditches by limiting visitor numbers through permissive (rather than open) access.
• Recognising the high potential for archaeological remains in this area.

SEO 2

SEO 2: Manage the agricultural and woodland resource and priority habitats for the benefit of biodiversity, landscape character and the economy.

For example by:

• Promoting sustainable and water-friendly agriculture and minimising run-off containing agricultural chemicals (fertilisers, pesticides) as well as managing the soils to keep them on the field and to sequester CO2 to mitigate climate change.
• Promoting limited use of the landscape for root crops and free range pigs on lighter soils where soil erosion is a problem.
• Promoting greater take-up of woodland grant schemes and encouraging a reduction in the proportion of conifers in favour of indigenous broadleaves. Managing broadleaved areas with an emphasis on sustainable practices (for example, coppicing of sweet chestnut, as found on the Woburn Estate, and hazel) and retaining conifer content as a characteristic feature of the ridgeline.
• Creating new woodlands, especially within the Forest of Marston Vale, and managing existing ones using traditional methods including coppicing, and extending and linking these with ancient woodland sites and smaller woodland blocks in valleys, while maintaining the landscape character without creating excessive visual enclosure.
• Promoting sustainable new uses and viable markets for private woodlands to bring them back into management and enhance their environmental value.
• Protecting the peats of the Flit valley.
• Creating and reinstating areas of heathland habitat through appropriate land management methods including clearance of coniferous woodland and scrub on poorer soils which are developing acidic plant and animal communities.
• Promoting Environmental Stewardship to deliver maintenance, restoration and re-creation of semi-natural habitats such as acid grassland as well as arable options for farmland birds and farmland wildlife.
• Reinstating and restoring hedgerow features, where possible reflecting historic pre-enclosure boundaries, expanding outwards from areas of more intact condition.
• Ensuring that steeper scarp slopes are retained predominantly for pasture and woodland so as to maintain traditional patterns and protect from soil erosion.
• Protecting, enhancing and linking priority habitats, including heathland, acid grassland, acid mires and woodland, and creating and expanding buffer zones for birds, especially nightjars and woodlarks.
• Enhancing and expanding suitable conditions for dormice at Maulden.
• Enhancing and expanding suitable conditions for adders at three isolated locations across the Ridge.
• Encouraging the sensitive generation of alternative energy by promoting the scope for biomass crops of small-scale short rotation coppice and miscanthus, on arable sections of the dip slopes reflecting existing field patterns.

SEO 3

SEO 3: Protect the Ridge’s aquifer, the river valley landscape of the Flit, Ivel and Ouzel to benefit biodiversity, prevent soil erosion, improve river flow and quality, support pollinators and protect and enhance wildlife and recreational corridors.

For example by:

• Protecting the aquifer from pollution and over-extraction.
• Reinstating flood meadow pasture to allow for seasonal high water levels and summer grazing and to support its associated species and assemblages.
• Enhancing and expanding suitable conditions for wetland species including natterjack toad, sedges, lower plants including liverworts, and fungi.
• Enhancing river corridors by planting wet woodland, including native willow, poplar and alder.
• Working with partners to ensure that water abstraction has the minimum impact on designated wetland habitat, minimising its effect on biodiversity and water quality.
• Maintaining input, where possible, from springs.
• Seeking opportunities to reinstate arable land to pasture, particularly in association with rivers and settlement edges.
• Increasing the current flood storage capacity by creating or increasing areas of flood plain grazing marsh reedbeds, concentrating on areas at risk.
• Enhancing and protecting biodiversity and the ecological status of rivers and streams to enable EU Water Framework Directive objectives to be achieved.
• Preventing the introduction and spread of non-native invasive species (plants and animals) that have an adverse impact on river life biodiversity and ecological status.

SEO 4

SEO 4: Promote and protect the distinct character and geodiversity of the Greensand Ridge landscape, with its prominent sandstone ridgeline rising from the surrounding low-lying vales; protect the long open views and high levels of tranquillity to ensure continued enjoyment of the landscape and plan for the sustainable extraction and restoration of sites associated with the distinctive geology.

For example by:

• Identifying and conserving key geological features, including quarry exposures of Greensand and Gault (for example, Double Arches Pit SSSI and Nine Acres Pit SSSI).
• Preserving exposures of the local stratigraphy for research and education as well as for their aesthetic value
• Demonstrating the history of mineral extraction within the NCA, for building stone, high-quality sands and fuller’s earth.
• Creating and promoting interpretation of, and access to, geological features and assets of the area, highlighting links to other interests including historic earthworks, local building materials, distinctive habitats, flora and fauna.
• Working to agree restoration plans and management agreements between landowners, operators and the Minerals Planning Authority for existing and former extraction and quarry sites that demonstrate geological, landscape, biodiversity and public access benefits, including those where extraction of nationally scare minerals such as fuller’s earth has taken place.
• Promoting the importance of smaller-scale locally distinctive features such as acidic mires, that are a feature of the local geology.

Additional opportunity 1

Additional opportunity 1: Manage and plan for the recreational use of the area by putting in place multifunctional green infrastructure networks and green space provision which respects intrinsic character and provides enhanced access and connections for people and wildlife.

For example by:

• Creating, promoting and improving interpretation of existing rights of way and strategic facilities (for example, the Greensand Ridge Walk), providing new and enhanced connections to strategic routes from adjacent settlements and increasing promotion of health walk initiatives.
• Providing enhanced sustainable access for longer journeys and promoting the use of buses and trains.
• Creating new access links within and between existing local communities and amenities, and creating natural public green space in areas of need as identified in Natural England access maps.
• Seeking opportunities to increase public access along river corridors.
• Reviewing adequacy and management of existing parking areas providing access to the countryside.
• Ensuring that formal sports facilities (for example, golf courses) are created and managed to respect and emphasise local landscape character and create/maintain public access opportunities.
• Ensuring that liaison and understanding are maintained with major landowners to balance the pressures of public access with private ownership interests.
• Promoting the creation of new green infrastructure, including quality green space provision for existing and new populations to meet any local short falls in resource.
• Identifying remaining tranquil areas and safeguarding them from further intrusive developments and activities.
• Creating access to the wider countryside for the benefits that would bring for the public using this access.
• Linking green infrastructure for the benefit of visitors as well as species.