87 - East Anglian Chalk : 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: Maintain sustainable but productive agricultural land use, while expanding and connecting the chalkland assemblage of semi-natural grasslands, for example by sensitive management of road verges and extending buffer strips along field margins to benefit soil and water quality, reduce soil erosion, strengthen landscape character and enhance biodiversity and pollinator networks.

For example by:

• Encouraging resource-efficient farming where risks are identified and can be managed to reduce negative impacts. For example, arable reversion should be targeted in areas of high soil erosion risk and fertiliser use minimised where infiltration into the aquifer is rapid.
• Conserving and maximising the soil resource, aiming particularly to avoid deterioration of soils with high Agricultural Land Classification grades.
• Encouraging sheep grazing on biodiverse grasslands to bring benefits to biodiversity and sense of place. Advise longer growing periods between grazing and increase sward diversity in leys to improve root penetration and soil stability.
• Seeking opportunities for restoration and creation of low-input and unimproved grassland and creation of buffer strips for wildlife where appropriate within catchments in the National Character Area (NCA). This will reduce run-off and provide improvements in water availability from the rivers and the main aquifer, as well as providing networks of habitats for pollinators.
• Optimising benefits for farmland birds and rare arable plants by maintaining stubble and cultivated and uncropped field margins to provide winter food and safe nesting habitats.
• Lowering the nutrient input and ensuring grazing or cutting after flowering by the horse-racing industry. This could significantly expand the species-rich grassland area.
• Establishing a resilient ecological network, identifying and addressing gaps and building core areas, particularly in relation to chalk grassland and flood plain habitats.
• Promoting and enhancing management of road verges for high-quality grassland habitat.
• Exploring and realising opportunities for restoration and creation of favourably managed wetland habitats along the flood plains of the rivers Cam, Granta and Rhee.

SEO 2

SEO 2: Conserve the regionally important East Anglian chalk groundwater resource, by working in partnership to ensure that an integrated catchment- scale approach is secured for its enhanced long-term management, including the chalk streams, for the benefit of biodiversity, landscape character and recreational experience.

For example by:

• Working in partnership with water companies across the water supply network area to replace or prevent/limit damaging abstraction and consumption, including engaging water consumers about negative impacts of unsustainable abstraction on East Anglian chalk streams.
• Exploring opportunities for the expansion of semi-natural wetland habitats along the flood plains of the rivers Cam, Granta and Rhee, including reedbeds next to watercourses to act as nutrient sinks.
• Engaging communities in better understanding of the relationship between geodiversity, the underlying aquifer, water quality and availability, and soils and the natural processes that limit available resources.
• Creating grassland buffer strips running across slopes within catchments to reduce sediment and nutrient run-off into adjacent watercourses, thereby improving the quality of the rivers and their flood plains. Also restore river character, for example pollarding willows.
• Maintaining and restoring semi-natural habitats and woodlands to intercept and infiltrate surface water down into the aquifers.

SEO 3

SEO 3: Conserve and promote the landscape character, geodiversity, historic environment and historical assets of the chalklands, including the open views of undulating chalkland, large rectilinear field pattern and linear ditches, strong equine association and the Icknield Way prehistoric route. Im- prove opportunities to enhance people’s enjoyment of the area while protecting levels of tranquillity.

For example by:

• Protecting and appropriately managing the historic environment for its contribution to local character and sense of identity and as a frame work for habitat restoration and sustainable development, and enhancing biodiversity.
• Managing and conserving the area’s heritage assets as an integral part of its distinctive landscape, while recognising the potential for undiscovered remains, including those revealed through agricultural change.
• Minimising and – where possible – eliminating risk to Scheduled Monuments and nationally significant archaeology, including through arable reversion, shallow cultivation or minimum tillage agriculture, and encouraging up take of agri-environment schemes to fund such work.
• Maintaining, developing and improving the rights of way network and access to sites and areas of interest.
• Raising the profile of the strategic importance of the Icknield Way by promoting it as the link between the existing Peddars Way and The Ridgeway National Trails.
• Engaging with communities and owners of historic features in celebrating and conserving the historic environment, including developing skills in historic environment conservation and traditional building skills and conservation.
• Ensuring that the distinctive elements of the chalk landscape, flowing water and rural scene are conserved and managed to retain and enhance the strong sense of place.
• Encouraging and supporting traffic-calming measures and non-car travel at popular countryside destinations, to improve tranquillity and recreation experiences generally.
• Working with the horse-racing industry and major landowners of historic properties to expand the area of species-rich grassland through appropriate management techniques.
• Encouraging geo-conservation, working with local geology groups and geologists, connecting with the Chalk East initiative and strengthening the link between geodiversity and the character and landscape of the NCA.
• Promoting the use of white and yellow brick and thatch in the north and west and red brick and flints in the east as traditional building materials. Encourage local councils to grant planning permission for small-scale extraction of chalk ‘clunch’ for repairing historic buildings and building new structures of conservation value.

SEO 4

SEO 4: Conserve the settlement character and create or enhance sustainable urban drainage systems and green infrastructure within existing and new developments, particularly in relation to the urban fringe and growth areas such as south-east Cambridge, to provide recreation opportunities, increase soil and water quality and enhance landscape character.

For example by:

• Avoiding or minimising further erosion of tranquillity by ensuring that development is appropriate to the setting and incorporates suitable measures, such as tree planting or green buffers.
• Supporting, creating and improving links between recreational assets and settlements, particularly where growth is planned.
• Improving green infrastructure within settlements and through new development, particularly in relation to urban fringe and growth areas such as south-east Cambridge, by providing accessible greenspace and potentially creating new biodiverse grasslands.
• Targeting the development of sustainable urban drainage systems and greenspace within urban centres to filter pollutants. This will be increasingly important as building continues to expand the commuter villages and towns.
• Conserving and enhancing historic earthworks and routes that evidence past settlement by scrub removal. This will also provide access to and enhance biodiversity corridors, for example Icknield Way, Worsted Street and Fleam Dyke.
• Encouraging further provision of cycle routes and, exploring the feasibility, in the long term of new rail routes.
• Engaging with communities and owners of heritage features in celebrating and conserving the historic environment, including developing skills in historic environment conservation, historic landscape management and conservation.
• Exploring opportunities to enhance the setting, interpretation and visitor facilities of heritage assets, for example the historic dykes and other earthwork monuments.