79 - North East Norfolk and Flegg : Analysis: Ecosystem Services

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Fertile and productive soils
• Pig and poultry farming
• Some farms have grazing livestock
• Traditional orchards
• Fishing grounds off shore
• Soft fruit production and processing

State – 86 per cent of soils are deep loams, which are among the most fertile in the country.

71 per cent of farms are predominately arable growing cereals, sugar beet and potatoes.

9 per cent of farms graze livestock around the Broads margins.

Pig and poultry farming is widespread.

Horticultural vegetable crops are grown in the lighter warmer soils.

Fruit farms are found near Tunstead and in the south-west of the area.

Herring, lemon sole and sole spawn close to the coast.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The soil quality, water availability and land drainage support high levels of agricultural production, but there are increasing pressures on these resources. Problems with soil erosion are likely to affect production in future.

Market conditions and loss of farm subsidies are likely to determine future changes in agricultural practices.

Higher intensity cropping leads to greater use of chemical fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides and water, increasing levels of pollution in the Broads.

Climate change could substantially reduce the yield of winter wheat in some years and drive a change towards spring crops.

Finding suitable livestock to graze pastures is becoming more difficult which is reducing soil organic matter and affecting landscape character.

One of the UK’s leading growers and processors of high quality soft fruits for major British supermarkets is located in Tunstead and there is a large inflow of migrant workers during the fruit picking season.

There is a network of local producer outlets in market towns and villages which have strong linkages with the tourist industry.

Herring fishing in the area collapsed in the 1960s. Eighteen fishing boats which catch herring for craft sales are now based in Suffolk.

Opportunities – Work with the farming community to safeguard future food production by encouraging more mixed farming and sustainable land management practices which enhance soil and water quality and increase biodiversity values on farmland.

Raise awareness of nutrient and pesticide pollution, which has an effect on protected areas and the marine environment and promote opportunities to embrace low input production.

Support farm diversification through production and marketing of high-value local and specialist food items and promote local produce to locals and visitors.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Food provision
• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating soil erosion
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Existing woodland
• Commercial timber production at Bacton Woods

State – The existing woodland cover (5 per cent of area) consists of broadleaved, coniferous and mixed woodland which is mostly located in the western part of the NCA. Less than 1 per cent is ancient woodland.

There is minimal commercial timber production apart from Bacton Woods which has over 30 species of tree including sessile oaks.

Oak is the dominant hedgerow tree but many are in a state of advanced decay.

Since 1998 Countryside Stewardship has funded hedge management (3 km), hedge planting and restoration (12 km).

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – The agricultural landscape generally has a poor hedgerow network and limited woodland cover. The woodland/ hedgerow resource is poorly managed.

Since 1998, as a result of funding through the Woodland Grant Scheme, tree planting rose 32 per cent by 2003, and increased still further through Environmental Stewardship.

Grubbing-up of orchards has occurred, particularly in the Stalham area.

Opportunities – Renew and replant old hedgerow lines to reinforce the historic field boundary pattern.

Manage and conserve areas of woodland in the inland farming area, particularly where they occur on the fringes of the Broads.

Retain existing orchards and fruit varieties and plant new orchards to enhance landscape and biodiversity interests.

Promote the value of woodlands for biodiversity, local community recreation and education.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Timber provision
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers Ant and Mun
• Surface water (reservoirs)
• Farm reservoirs

State – The NCA is in the driest part of the country and droughts are a regular feature of the climate.

The groundwater resource of the NCA is predicted to be under pressure and of poor quantitative status by 2015.

There are a number of both agricultural and potable water boreholes around the flood plain periphery drawing water from the chalk aquifer below; the largest is in Ormesby St Michael.

Both the surface water and ground water abstraction licences are currently fully utilised.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Climate change may increase the frequency of drought periods resulting in more use of abstracted water to support agricultural practices.

Great Yarmouth’s dependency on surface water for public water supply puts it at increased risk during dry periods.

Abstraction is strictly regulated due to concerns about aquifer-fed fen communities, low river flows, and saltwater ingress from the sea.

The Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) has funded two new farm reservoirs near Stalham.

Limited work has been undertaken to improve domestic water storage or increase water use efficiencies.

Opportunities – Promote the sustainable use of water by encouraging sympathetic land management practices which reduce the demand for ground water for crop irrigation.

Expand farm water storage capacity and ensure that new irrigation reservoirs safeguard the distinctive quality of the local landscape and benefit wildlife.

Promote water efficiency measures for example, agricultural and domestic harvesting of rainwater.

Encourage planting of drought tolerant crops.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Water availability
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Gardens and orchards

State – Many villages and farmsteads retain small traditional orchards preserving a number of locally important apple varieties, including Happisburgh, Green Roland, Vicar of Beighton and Winter Broaden apples.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – It is important to maintain the genetic diversity of orchard fruit varieties in order to safeguard future food and drink provision, and afford increased resilience to climate change and disease.

Opportunities – Raise awareness of local varieties and link owners of orchards with local fruit producers and suppliers.

Encourage regeneration of existing orchards and new planting with local varieties.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Genetic diversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Hedgerows and woodland

State – Only 5 per cent of the NCA area is wooded, located mainly in the western part of the NCA.

There is minimal commercial timber production apart from at Bacton Woods

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis The NCA offers some limited potential for the provision of biomass by bringing unmanaged woodland under management. There is potential to introduce rotational coppice.

There and is also potential for miscanthus planting, both along the coast and also further inland, with the opportunity to use the planting to help screen some of the larger settlements.

The potential short rotation coppice yield is generally medium and the potential miscanthus yield is high. Care should be taken in selecting sites to ensure that significant hedgerows and historic field bank patterns are not obscured.

Opportunities – Work with the farming community to identify suitable areas for the planting of miscanthus where it would create additional enclosure in the inland area and improve woodland linkages.

Support the reinstatement of woodland management regimes including rotational coppice, which will also benefit biodiversity.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biomass energy
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Hedgerows, trees, woodlands and orchards
• Soils
• Coastal habitats including sand dunes and beaches

State – The woodlands, hedgerows and orchards in the NCA offer a carbon storage resource, and further planting will create additional carbon storage capacity.

Soils over much of the NCA are generally light, less water-retentive soils with a low carbon content, which have less potential to sequester carbon, are at greater risk from erosion, resulting in lower carbon storage.

4 per cent of the NCA is covered by remnants of peaty soils. Other areas have soils with a loamy and sandy nature which have a higher carbon content.

Sand dunes found along the coast have significant carbon storage potential.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – As woodland cover is very low (5 per cent of the area) the carbon storage potential from them is commensurately low.

As soils are very fertile and cultivated, frequently carbon sequestration and storage can only be increased by measures that increase organic matter content and by reducing the frequency and area of cultivation.

Agricultural intensification, drainage of the land and the decline in mixed farming systems, has increased rates of decomposition of soil organic matter and erosion of topsoils. This has reduced the carbon sequestration potential of the farmed environment.

Small areas of orchards have both a significant biodiversity and carbon storage importance.

Dunes and beaches have significant carbon storage potential as a result of soil organic matter accumulated due to the production of litter and dead roots.

Opportunities – In the longer term more tree and hedge planting offers the potential to significantly increase the overall sequestration of carbon of the NCA.

Increase the level of mixed farming and increase grazing livestock numbers to increase the amount of manure being spread on fields and so return carbon to the agricultural soils.

Adopting land management options which reduce the soil disturbance, erosion and oxidation is likely to result in increased carbon stores.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Climate regulation
• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating soil erosion

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Pleistocene bedrock
• Glacial deposits Soils
• Eroding cliffs and coastal geomorphological processes
• Offshore mobile sandbanks
• Sand dunes Fossil beds

State – North East Norfolk is geologically complex with glacial deposits of boulder clay, sands and gravel over Crag (shelly sands and pebbly gravels). It frequently contains embedded fossils and archaeological remains providing evidence of early human settlement; a valuable historical record and educational resource.

The effects of the North Sea are strikingly seen along the northern coastal strip where the exposed soft cliffs are rapidly eroding inland. The coastal strip between Mundesley and Happisburgh is part of the most physically active coastline in Britain, and is the main provider of sediment for the area’s beaches as strong long-shore drift moves this fallen material from the cliffs.

Natural offshore banks along this stretch help to protect the coastline between Winterton-on-Sea and Yarmouth, affecting both the waves and currents at the shore.

The accreting ness at Great Yarmouth North Denes, along with Winterton-on-Sea, are among the best examples of this type of geomorphological feature on the eastern coast of England.

Main beneficiary – International

Analysis – Erosion of this section of coast provides sediment to build the area’s beaches, helping avoid accelerated erosion of the shoreline, providing better protection to towns and villages and satisfying nature conservation requirements.

Further planned development of Bacton Gas Terminal could result in damage to the area’s geological interest at Mundesley and needs to be considered.

The Great Yarmouth outer harbour is likely to have an impact on both marine and coastal processes and dredging may affect the sediment supply to offshore banks.

The geology of the area, and the physical influence of the North Sea upon it, means that it continues to provide evidence that builds an historical record of human activity in the area over time; of national and international significance and a valuable educational resource. For example, recent archaeological excavations on Happisburgh beach discovered more than 70 flint tools and flakes as well as human footprints providing evidence that humans lived in the Happisburgh area more than 900,000 years ago. This is the first known human settlement in Northern Europe and some of the oldest human footprints in the world.

Opportunities – Maintain the nationally important geological exposures and geomorphological sites exhibiting mass movement features, by allowing natural processes of cliff mobility to continue.

Provide resourcing for the management of geodiversity for example, through environmental stewardship and encourage landowners to protect valuable sites.

Provide opportunities to develop projects which inform, engage and empower local communities, allowing them to take an active part in preparing for the impact coastal change will have on their heritage.

Maintain and enhance the geological resource by identifying and improving opportunities for enhanced access to sites and improving understanding of geodiversity through interpretation and education.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Geodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Regulating coastal flooding and erosion

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Woodland
• Rivers
• Coastal habitats

State – For information regarding the current state of water quality within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Draft river basin management plan maps).

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The dominance of arable farming in the area with high nitrate and phosphate levels and the high proportion of pig and poultry farms have a negative effect on water quality. Excess farmyard manure and slurry applications, nutrient leaching and inefficient crop nutrient management are also contributory factors.

There is some localised pollution from pesticides, soil erosion and sedimentation and transport pollutants to watercourses.

There is limited evidence of management agreements for riverine or coastal habitats, suggesting overall neglect.

Rural land management practices and road surfaces cause high phosphate levels and increased levels of sediment in watercourses. The contribution of phosphate from households in areas without mains drainage is potentially significant and affects water quality.

Land uses within the coastal strip have a major impact on the quality of the wetland habitats of the Broads and industrial and commercial activity in Great Yarmouth is a potential threat to Breydon Water. It is important that actions undertaken here help to secure the integrity of both areas.

Opportunities – Encourage targeted fertiliser and pesticide application supported by good in-field analysis to help reduce contamination of the water resource.

Work in partnership with farmers to encourage take up of agri-environment options to protect watercourses and to prevent water quality deterioration caused by diffuse pollution and rapid run-off. For example, by maintaining wide field margins and grassland strips along field drains and water courses to capture sediment and nutrients.

Promote soil management techniques that help prevent deterioration of water quality caused by soil erosion and leaching.

Encourage good soil management practices such as retaining overwintering stubbles and increasing soil organic matter content to reduce soil erosion and run-off rates.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating water quality
• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating soil erosion

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers
• Agricultural land

State – The NCA is in the driest part of the country and droughts are a regular feature of the climate. Yet the NCA has limited water storage capacity.

The River Yare is tidal and is the main watercourse in the area and runs through the urban area of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston before entering the North Sea.

The NCA is at high risk of fluvial flooding from the River Yare and River Mun, particularly in Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and Mundesley. Other settlements at high risk of flooding include North Waltham, Caistor-on-Sea, Stalham and Hemsby.

Fluvial flooding does not pose an issue for the River Ant.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Low flows in rivers are becoming a regular feature and this limits the availability of water that can be abstracted for irrigation of food crops. Climate change may increase the frequency of drought periods resulting in more use of abstracted groundwater to support agricultural practices.

Groundwater levels around Great Yarmouth are very high, putting it at risk of flooding during periods of heavy rainfall.

For the River Mun, flood volumes are expected to increase in the future and therefore a flood risk management strategy will need to address this (North Norfolk Catchment Flood Management Plan, Environment Agency, 2009).

Rain falling on impermeable surfaces such as roads, not only washes pollutants into the water drainage system but also increases flooding in areas at risk, so consideration needs to be given to how rapid run-off and pollution can be reduced, including river bank and channel maintenance.

Opportunities – Promote opportunities to re-naturalise watercourses and reinstate upper catchment grassland to increase storage capacity (of both water and carbon), and help protect riverside communities further downstream on the rivers Ant and Bure (in The Broads NCA) from flooding.

Encourage land management practices that capture water and reduce run-off rates. For example, planting appropriate woodland, shelter belts and hedgerows; re-establishing farm ponds; constructing wetlands or sustainable urban drainage system, which can trap and treat pollutants and provide a wetland habitat.

Work in partnership to take an integrated approach to managing river, tidal and surface water resources.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating water flow
• Water availability
• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating soil erosion
• Biodiversity
• Geodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Tidal river
• Coastal sand dune, maritime cliff and slope, coastal shingle and coastal and flood plain grazing marsh
• Wide sandy beaches
• River embankments Geomorphological processes

State – The coastline in the NCA is dynamic and constantly evolving. The coastal strip between Mundesley and Happisburgh is part of the most physically active length of coast in Great Britain and is the main provider of sediment for beaches.

Extensive natural dune systems fringe the low lying stretches of coastline in parts of this NCA such as at Winterton-on-Sea and engineered defences are also in place offering protection from coastal flooding and erosion in some settlements.

An extremely wide and healthy beach system at Great Yarmouth, which has been fed by sediment derived from cliff erosion in northeast Norfolk, provides a natural sea defence helping to protect land and property from flooding.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The issues and opportunities facing this physically active and evolving coastline are complex.

Cross-sectoral partnerships are actively working to consider, evaluate and respond appropriately to the many issues and opportunities erosion and flood risk management presents on this section of coast.

The Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) Kelling Heath to Lowestoft Ness (Kelling to Lowestoft Ness Shoreline Management Plan – First Review: Non-Technical Summary (May 2010)) takes a holistic approach to management of the Norfolk coast and its geomorphological processes.

The policy options identified for this coastline are hold the existing defence line, managed realignment and no active intervention.

The policy options that are set out within the SMP will need to be confirmed by more detailed coastal strategies. The SMP identifies a need to allow for managed change, continuing to provide defences where justifiable for the immediate future, but with a long term plan, where appropriate, to gradually retreat and relocate, thus enabling a naturally functioning sustainable system to re-establish.

A vast majority of the length of this coastline is reliant upon sediment eroded from the cliffs of North Norfolk for beaches to provide natural defences, in some areas this has been supplemented through beach recharge.

For a number of sections of the coast it is identified that continuing to maintain adequate defences cannot be sustained in the medium or long term (The Seascape character area assessment for the East Inshore and East Offshore marine plan area can be seen here:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/east-marine-plan-areas-seascapecharacter-assessment).

Opportunities – Undertake studies to ensure coastal behaviour is fully understood in the light of changing defence policies.

Monitor changes on the coast, particularly related to the internationally important habitats that could be affected by policy options.

Identify appropriate social adaptation measures and work in partnership to implement these well in advance, to mitigate the impacts of coastal change, particularly on coastal communities.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating soil quality
• Food provision
• Regulating water flow
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating coastal erosion and flooding
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils

State – There are four main soilscape types in this NCA:

• Freely draining slightly acid loamy soils, covering 86 per cent of the NCA.
• Slowly permeable seasonally wet acid loamy and clayey soils (5 per cent).
• Loamy and sandy soils with naturally high groundwater and a peaty surface (4 per cent).
• Sand dune soils (2 per cent).

The freely draining slightly acid loamy soils (86 per cent of the NCA) may be valuable for aquifer recharge.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Rainfall is readily absorbed in the most fertile soils and drains away easily with little profile surface run-off.

The remaining soils in the NCA, if poorly managed, can lead to increased run-off rates, which strips away productive topsoil.

Some component soils are at risk from topsoil compaction and poaching. Careful management of weak topsoil will help to maintain a good soil structure. Minimum tillage such as direct drilling can work well in some of these soils.

Where organic matter is low increasing organic matter inputs can help improve soil structure.

Opportunities – Incorporate organic manures and beneficial wastes to improve soil structure and prevent compaction.

Encourage sustainable land management practices and mixed farming to help address soil erosion and increase biodiversity whilst maintaining food production.

Maintain good structure, avoiding compaction, to aid water infiltration but also adopt soil moisture conservation techniques to retain moisture within the soils.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil quality
• Climate regulation
• Regulating coastal flooding and erosion
• Biodiversity
• Geodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils
• Semi-natural vegetation cover

State – The freely draining, slightly acid loamy soils covering 86 per cent of the NCA have enhanced risk of soil erosion on moderately sloping land or where cultivated or bare soil is exposed.

Erosion is exacerbated where organic matter levels are low after continuous arable cultivation or where soils are compacted.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – There is a high risk of erosion in soils where the timing of agricultural operations results in land being left bare during periods of high rainfall e.g. spring sown cereals, field vegetables, sugar beet, maize and potatoes, and when cultivations take place on sloping land north of North Walsham.

Soil erosion from wind scour is high especially in arable areas near the exposed North Sea coast. Wind erosion of soils can be reduced by planting hedgerows in areas at high risk.

Soils susceptible to capping and slaking need to be managed carefully to reduce erosion risks. Timing of cultivations and vegetation cover is important.

Opportunities – Encourage farming practices that increase the organic matter content of soils such as the use of grass leys, introducing fallow into rotations and over-winter stubbles.

Reduce soil compaction by encouraging the careful timing of land management activities, including reducing unnecessary machinery use in wet conditions.

Plant hedgerow boundaries where appropriate to protect soils against wind erosion.

Seek opportunities to create semi natural habitats and ecological networks within the farmed landscape which will protect soils and water and enhance biodiversity.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating water quality
• Food provision
• Biodiversity
• Geodiversity
• Regulating water quality

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Heathland, grassland and meadow habitats
• Field margins Hedgerow banks

State – The NCA contains grassland and meadow habitats which support a variety of nectar sources.

Field margins and hedgerow banks in agricultural land provide important foraging sources for pollinator species.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Pollen and nectar margins on arable farms (through agri-environment schemes) can provide important foraging habitat for pollinators. These should be increased where possible.

Hedgerow banks can be managed to provide important nectar sources and may act as wildlife corridors between semi-natural habitats.

Existing lowland heaths and grasslands provide suitable habitat for a range of pollinating insects.

Opportunities – Maintain and enhance the floristic diversity of lowland meadow and lowland heathland, and other semi-natural habitats, to increase the area of habitat suitable for pollinators.

Work with the farming community to encourage sympathetic management for pollinator species and to increase the areas of pollen and nectar-rich field margins on arable farms.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pollination
• Biodiversity
• Food provision

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Semi-natural habitats
• Field margins
• Hedgerows

State – Semi-natural habitats, field margins and hedgerows adjacent to arable farmland support populations of pest regulating invertebrate, bird and mammal species.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Increasing diversity in species and structure of field margins will increase the ability for these areas to support populations of pest regulating species.

There may be opportunities to improve the network of semi-natural habitats across the NCA through appropriate management of existing habitats and creation of new habitat.

Opportunities – Seek opportunities to increase field margins, species-rich hedgerows and beetle banks to encourage a network of habitats for pest regulating species close to areas of agricultural production and manage semi-natural habitats to increase their diversity of structure and composition.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pest regulation
• Pollination
• Biodiversity
• Food provision

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Nucleated villages and market towns
• Traditional farming settlements
• Coastal landscape and seascape
• Wind-swept coastal area
• Wind farms, on shore and off shore

State – The sense of place in the NCA is created by the dual influences of the coast and the North Sea (with its
associated coastal and marine habitats and species, historic trade and fishing industries and more recent tourism) and the farmland of the hinterland which is much valued for agriculture.

Long and wind-swept sandy beaches represent an ephemeral landscape with a sense of wilderness. Offshore wind farms have a strong visual impact on views out to sea.

There are long views across The Broads NCA towards the coast.

Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, Admiral Nelson and Anna Sewell all have strong connections with the area.

The strength of vernacular built character in settlement cores such as Winterton is notable and creates a strong sense of identity.

Skyline features in Great Yarmouth result from resort and port related developments

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The sense of place is threatened by development along the coastal strip, and on the fringes of existing villages, with the proliferation of holiday chalets and pressure for new development within the commuter villages to the north and east of Norwich.

A second major new wind farm development close to Martham and Scoby Sands has further altered the visual character of the coast and seascape.

The overriding character of the landscape is provided by its traditional agricultural landscape and settlement pattern. Intensification of farming activities and increasing pressures from development, including increases in traffic, may adversely affect the agricultural landscape.

A shortage of suitable livestock for grazing on the Broads fringe is likely to have an effect on the landscape of the area, leading to the decline in important cultural landscapes and wildlife habitats.

The bleak and open coastline is dominated by large areas of arable land that has resulted from extensive hedgerow removal which has neglected landscape character. Recent hedgerow planting as a result of Environmental Stewardship has improved the situation but further hedgerow planting and restoration is required.

Opportunities – Ensure development plans are sensitive to preserving the traditional character of the landscape particularly along the coastal strip.

Promote the use of traditional vernacular and building materials that conserve and enhance historic associations such as the Edwardian tourism chalets in Winterton.

Encourage the establishment and use of ‘flying flocks’ for grazing to ensure the Broads landscape maintained.

Encourage the planting and restoration of hedgerows, particularly on coastal arable areas, to improve landscape character and to increase biodiversity.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soft sediment cliffs
• Maritime heritage – links to port and fishing industry, naval and coastguard
• Farmed landscape
• Victorian seaside resorts
• Second World War military features

State – The NCA’s actively eroding coastline results in a wealth of archaeological finds helping to build a picture of settlement and land use in the area through time. In 2013 the oldest human footprints ever found in Europe were exposed on the shore.

Great Yarmouth is an historic centre for port related and maritime activity, and the River Yare has provided an important trading link with Norwich.

There is a long maritime heritage associated with herring fishing and work in its associated industries. Distinctive small fishing villages that developed along the coast as a result of rich fishing opportunities are still evident today.

The history of the landscape was shaped by the area’s productive agricultural past, its small hamlets and isolated farmsteads with resultant small land holdings and field patterns some of which are still evident today.

Wool production was a major economic activity from the mid-14th to 18th centuries and the production of textiles was central to many villages. This led to Flemish architectural influences and the building of medieval churches and houses in the north-west.

The areas historical association with mass tourism began after the Victorians built railways to the coast, and in 1906 Britain’s first holiday camp was established at Caister.

Cottishall Airfield has blast walls and other Cold War defences of national importance.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – The areas actively eroding soft sediment cliffs are constantly revealing new archaeological remains which are evidence of early human occupation. There is potential to interpret this asset and give more people the opportunity to engage with and understand the area’s historic past.

Apart from the Time and Tide Museum situated in the UK’s best preserved Victorian Herring curing works in Great Yarmouth, there is little to remind visitors to the NCA about its important and varied maritime past.

Development is likely to occur close to existing centres of population, expanding market towns and resulting in the loss of some of their historic character. The use of traditional building materials in new developments may help to retain historic links.

The areas important historic Second World War assets are largely neglected and much could be done to restore and interpret their interests for future generations.

Opportunities – Work with partners to better communicate the NCA’s prehistoric past, the significance of the local geology and role of the sea in this. Use opportunities offered by the new Coastal Access Path in 2014 to provide interpretation and educational opportunities for the visitor to experience.

Work with Maritime East and associated museums to provide opportunities for people to understand more about the maritime associations in the area.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Geodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Undeveloped northern coastline
• Inland areas of the Broads

State – A sense of tranquillity is particularly associated with the undeveloped stretches of the northern coastline, as well as the more remote inland areas with views over the Broads where patches of woodland and semi-natural grassland occur.

The sandy beaches and sand dune systems evoke a strong sense of tranquillity outside peak holiday periods.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – The tranquil areas of the NCA may be compromised in future by increased road traffic and new development. The area’s concentrated urban settlements, commercial activities and both in and off shore wind farm developments are likely to increasingly detract from levels of tranquillity.

Expanding the area and connectivity of woodland could have a beneficial effect on tranquillity, biodiversity and climate regulation, particularly in and around the fringes of the larger settlements.

The NCA is a busy and popular holiday destination so increased car usage is an issue, especially during summer months. Improving sustainable transport opportunities and promoting their use, for example increasing the use and reach of the Coasthopper Bus, could reduce traffic movements and noise pollution.

Promoting the ‘Quiet Lanes’ project and investigating opportunities to expand the network and improve its effectiveness could similarly contribute positively to noise reduction.

Opportunities – Incorporate green infrastructure links and woodland buffers to new developments and plan to minimise new development in the currently more tranquil areas.

Work with partners to devise and implement a sustainable transport strategy for the area. For example, encouraging the use of and integrating rail and bus services, establishing and promoting enhanced cycle, walking and waterway routes to enhance the visitor experience and reduce car usage.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Tranquillity
• Recreation
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Geodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Seaside resorts
• Long-distance footpaths and cycle ways
• Waterways
• Protected sites
• Forestry
• Commission woodland

State – Great Yarmouth is now the third largest seaside resort in the UK. The NCA has 24 km of ‘golden sand’ attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

The Weavers’ Way and Paston Way long-distance paths run through the NCA and along disused railway lines. The Norfolk Coast Cycleway (Sustrans Regional Route 30) runs through the area from Mundesley to Great Yarmouth and Route 1 runs from Acle to Great Yarmouth.

Boating access to the Broads and Norfolk’s only canal built specifically for Norfolk wherries, are popular for recreation.

Winterton Dunes NNR and North Denes SPA provide public access to acidic dunes and heaths where rare plants can be seen and little terns nest.

Bacton Woods, owned by the Forestry Commission, is an important area for recreation.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – Due to the popularity of the NCA for tourism, many of the area’s natural sites, especially along the coast, are under recreational pressure. Both Winterton Dunes NNR and North Denes SPA
are heavily used at peak periods yet their habitats are fragile and breeding birds susceptible to disturbance from visitors. Careful management is needed to maintain their special ecological interests. Similarly there are recreational pressures on land within the Broads buffer zone.

The Coast Path in Norfolk will provide new access around the coast.

Promotion of the Coastal Path is likely to attract more visitors to the coast and this will require partners to develop a visitor management strategy.

Environmental Stewardship has provided a number of new permissive access paths which give local communities access to land on their doorsteps. The creation of other new access routes, incorporation of green infrastructure links in to new developments and planting community woodlands could help to relive recreational pressures on the existing resource and offer opportunities to enhance local biodiversity.

Opportunities – Undertake research to understand the recreational usage of existing sites and the potential for creating further green spaces and access routes to reduce pressure on the existing resource, in line with Accessible Natural Greenspace Standard (ANGSt).

Work with partners to produce a high quality tourism and recreational strategy, looking at the whole NCA and beyond, to help reduce car usage, take people away from more sensitive coastal sites and offer visitors new recreational opportunities.

Enhance the area’s existing public rights of way network and where possible establish new integrated permissive access between the coast and other areas of countryside to link people with places and help to make recreation more sustainable.

Support the restoration and use by eco-friendly vessels of the North Walsham and Dilham Canal, providing a balance between the needs of navigation, recreation, heritage, and environmental enhancement, to improve access and education about the canal and encourage community involvement.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Recreation
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Coastal sand dunes
• Maritime cliff and slope
• Coastal and flood plain grazing marsh
• Lowland grasslands
• Other semi-natural habitats

State – There is over 392 ha (just under 2 per cent of the NCA area) of priority habitats within the NCA including 145 ha of coastal sand dunes.

The Great Yarmouth North Denes dune and dune grassland communities are of national importance. They support populations of the nationally rare grey hair-grass and the nationally scarce rush-leaved fescue. It is the only site known in Britain for the rare capsid bug, Polmerus vulneratus.

The NCA contains two SPAs, three SAC, one Ramsar site and 149 ha (just under 1 per cent of the NCA area) is nationally designated as SSSI. The NCA contains one third of Winterton Dunes which is within Norfolk Coast AONB. It has an extensive dune system which supports little tern on the foreshore. Natterjack toads also breed here.

The little tern colony at Great Yarmouth holds about 10 per cent of the UK breeding population of this species.

Although only 1 ha in size, Paston Great Barn NNR is an SSSI and SAC on account of its internationally important bat populations. This includes the barbastelle bat, one of the UK’s rarest mammals.

There are 11 SSSI wholly or partly within the NCA, one is a Geological Site and one is of Mixed Interest.

There are 26 Local sites (County Wildlife Sites and Local Nature Reserves) covering 329 ha which is 1 per cent of the NCA.

Main beneficiary – International

Analysis – The coastline of the NCA is active and constantly evolving. In the future, as the land of the east coast continues to ‘sink’ and sea levels continue to rise, the character of the area’s protected sites will change. Managing these sites and enabling them to adapt and evolve is the subject of current partnership research and strategy development. Paston Great Barn NNR bat site is of international importance. It is important that a large zone (6-kilometre radius), around this site is managed sympathetically to provide suitable feeding habitats.

Throughout the NCA the sites of biodiversity interest are now fragmented and often isolated as a result of changed agricultural practices. Enhancing the quality, quantity and connectivity of these sites would benefit biodiversity and landscape character.

The farmed environment includes ditches, hedgerows, copses and field margins dispersed through the landscape providing important connections across it and biodiversity habitats. Nationally important populations of barn owl and grey partridge are supported by the arable areas.

There is considerable scope to improve biodiversity by working with land managers through agri-environment schemes.

Biodiversity in the NCA is a key tourism asset, important for encouraging recreation and creating a sense of place. It is therefore valued not only for its intrinsic value but also for its societal values. The use of green infrastructure links from residential areas out in to the rural hinterland is important to enable people to connect with and explore their rural environment.

Opportunities – Support integrated cross sectoral partnerships that aim to work collectively to manage the challenges and take the opportunities presented for biodiversity by the active and evolving coastline.

Build cross-sectoral partnerships to work towards enhancing the quality, quantity and connectivity of wildlife sites in the NCA to support implementation of the Norfolk Ecological Network Map.

Work with landowners and farmers to ensure biodiversity features are incorporated into the farmed landscape and encourage the uptake of land management practices that benefit biodiversity and aid in the reduction of soil run-off rates, diffuse pollution and pest control such as use of winter stubbles, field margins and hedgerow and shelterbelt planting.

Increase information availability about the area’s biodiversity assets and closely involve local communities in their care.

Encourage the use of green infrastructure links in and around residential areas to improve the accessibility of Local Wildlife Sites and enable people to connect with and experience their rural environment and aim to take pressure away from sensitive protected sites.

Work with landowners and the local bat group to monitor bat populations and ensure that a large zone (6-kilometre radius), around Paston Great Barn NNR is managed sympathetically to provide suitable semi-natural habitats suitable for feeding bats.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biodiversity
• Geodiversity
• Recreation
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Regulating coastal flooding and erosion