103 - Malvern Hills : 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: Conserve and appropriately manage the highly distinctive range of the Malvern Hills and the areas of semi-natural habitat in the wider character area such as woodland and traditional orchard, providing economic opportunities, fostering community participation.

For example by:

• Managing the mosaic of habitats and species on and close to the ridge of the Malvern Hills to achieve a mix of habitats in close proximity to each other, to encourage and support important species.
• Restoring traditional orchards and improving the species diversity of grasslands, especially species rich unimproved grassland and including lowland meadows, especially those in close proximity to existing areas to increase their important biodiversity resource.
• Protecting ancient woodlands and wood pasture, together with their impressive displays of bluebells and other woodland flora.
• Managing woodlands, especially those on inaccessible or difficult sites, to maintain their important biodiversity, their contribution to landscape character and to provide other products such as wood fuel.
• Restoring plantations on ancient woodland sites.
• Increasing the quantity and quality of sheep and cattle grazing, where appropriate, to control scrub, bracken and secondary woodland cover and increase the amount of open grassland, especially on and close to the ridge of the Malvern Hills.
• Maintaining the characteristic hedgerow boundaries (including mature and veteran trees) around small-medium sized fields.
• Restoring hedgerows to good condition (especially species rich hedgerows of ancient origin).
• Protecting the ancient rights of the commoners.
• Managing and restoring species rich meadows and daffodil meadows.
• Altering the management regimes of roadside verges to maximise their biodiversity value (within the limits of highway safety).
• Working with landowners to target the inputs into arable and intensively managed grasslands.
• Managing levels and placement of over-wintering livestock (including horses) to help reduce incidents of soil churning and compaction thereby enhancing soil and water quality and reducing soil erosion.

SEO 2

SEO 2: Manage and improve access to the landscape, as well as the cultural and geological features of the Malvern Hills National Character Area and promote enhanced understanding and enjoyment to reinforce a strong sense of place.

For example by:

• Maintaining excellent access across the Malvern Hills and adjoining commons.
• Promoting simple and clear messages to recreational users about rights and responsibilities across open access land.
• Enhancing access on public rights of way away from, and connecting with, the heavily visited Malvern Hills ridge.
• Identifying, protecting, managing and interpreting the characteristic geodiversity of the NCA within and outside designated areas, including the role of geology in determining appropriate habitat restoration and the role of geological processes in planning for future climate change resilience.
• Finding new and improved ways of providing information about the natural beauty of the NCA.
• Interpreting important environmental assets while also explaining the importance of the wider landscape within which the assets sit.
• Facilitating the exploration of the NCA by sustainable means of transport, especially from nearby urban populations.
• Managing visitor access to ensure landscape attributes are maintained and supporting the management and creation of local greenspace to help reduce pressure on the most visited sites.
• Working with local groups to ensure that a new generation is inspired by the landscape, for example, by connecting with the lives and works of composers artists and authors.

SEO 3

SEO 3: Protect and appropriately manage the historic environment and its setting, ensuring that historic features and landscapes are recognisable and valued.

For example by:

• Retaining locally characteristic settlement patterns, and the diverse range of vernacular buildings and locally distinctive design.
• Conserving the varied character of historic farmsteads throughout the NCA.
• Conserving historic parklands (together with their important veteran trees and deadwood fauna and flora), in particular focusing on continuity of the mature and veteran tree resources – both in the parkland and in the surrounding landscape.
• Conserving and interpreting archaeological earthworks and sub-surface archaeology, while recognising the potential for undiscovered remains.
• Conserving and appropriately managing iron-age hill forts, bronze-age barrows and the Shire Ditch along the busy Malvern Hills ridge.
• Managing and protecting historic environmental assets, including archaeological sites and remains, and historic landscapes.
• Ensuring the good management of soils across the area – this can be important for the protection of the historic environment.
• Ensuring that new development (both within and outside the NCA) does not have a detrimental impact on views (both from and towards the NCA) – particularly related to ridge of the Malvern Hills.
• Managing and protecting historic environmental assets that survive both on the boundaries of and within woodlands.

SEO 4

SEO 4: Plan for an expansion of semi-natural habitat where appropriate so that a significant ecological network is created and interconnected to adjoining areas. This will increase biodiversity, pollination, food and drink production, as well as regulate soil erosion, water and soil quality, reinforcing a strong sense of place.

For example by:

• Adopting a planned and measured approach to the creation of new areas of semi-natural habitat which will support existing wildlife habitats and species of importance in the area,
• Maximising the potential of blossom and fruit crops – with due regard to landscape acceptability – to encourage the cider and perry industry as well as good pollination across the area.
• Utilising locally appropriate corridors to create physical links between semi-natural habitats, for example flower rich verges, species rich hedgerows and copses.
• Creating and designating ‘refuge’ sites for breeding or resting for key wildlife species which may be subject to and susceptible to disturbance.