89 - Northamptonshire Vales : Analysis: Ecosystem Services

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils
• Mixed farming regime

State – Underlain by Mercia Mudstones these rocks give rise to a moderately undulating landscape characterised by mixed pasture and arable agricultural use that has developed on the neutral clay soils.

Arable farming can be found across the area with around three quarters of the area being Grade 3 agricultural land. On steeper ground and where clays are heavier, pasture farming is common.

Between 2000 and 2009 dairy farms have reduced by nearly a half and cereal farming has seen a slight increase.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Intensively farmed soils can become vulnerable to compaction and erosion. It will be important to maintain high levels of soil organic content and good soil structure to ensure soils remain productive.

Arable farming can provide multiple benefits in maintaining the level of food production and for potentially enhancing biodiversity and preserving the historic landscape character.

Pressures include the reduction or loss of permanent pasture to arable and the potential effects of diffuse pollution on watercourses particularly along the rivers Welland and Nene. To achieve a balance and optimise food production, land managers and farmers could be encouraged into agri-environment schemes.

Ongoing expansion of the many towns across the area and the extraction of aggregates have resulted in loss of farmland, mainly pasture.

Opportunities – Manage soils to allow continued sustainable agricultural production by increasing soil organic content and water infiltration, for example use of grass buffers along watercourses and inclusion of fallow in crop rotation.

Seek to work with farmers to manage arable cropping patterns to maintain levels of productivity while encouraging rarer arable plants, farmland birds and mammals and create grass margins around arable fields.

Extend agri-environment agreements with farmers to minimise the effects of diffuse pollution by adopting buffer strip management particularly along the rivers Welland and Nene to help improve water quality and to reduce inappropriate loss of pasture to arable.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Food provision
• Biodiversity
• Pollination
• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating soil erosion

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Areas of existing woodlands
• Parkland areas with woods and trees

State – This area has a low hectarage (3,782 ha) of woodland with no significant commercial forestry interest so current timber provision is low.

The woodland covers 4 per cent of the NCA, of which just less than 15 per cent is ancient woodland

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Bringing existing undermanaged woodland into management could increase the local supply of timber in the future which may also bring benefits for biodiversity, water quality, soil quality, and reducing soil erosion.

Better management of the historic woodland within parkland areas could lead to the more efficient and sustainable harvesting of timber using techniques such as coppicing.

By reintroducing coppicing there will be an increase in small section timber available in the area and spin off benefits for biodiversity with healthier and more diverse woodland stock.

A range of woodland management techniques are required, including non-intervention; dead wood is an important component of semi-natural woodlands for biodiversity as well as nutrient cycling and soil formation which supports the regulation of soil erosion, soil quality, climate and water quality.

Opportunities – Bring woodlands, including woodlands within parklands, into active management and re- introduce coppicing to increase timber provision.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Timber provision
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Climate regulation
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating water flow
• Biomass energy

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers
• Reservoirs
• Semi-natural habitats
• Topography

State – There are a large number of main rivers in the NCA including; the River Welland, the Eye Brook, the River Nene, Harpers Brook, the River Ise, and the River Tove. There are also a number of waterbodies located along the River Nene Valley and the Sywell Reservoir. There are no major aquifers in the NCA.

The upper River Welland and its tributaries (which include the Eye Brook) have a CAMS ‘over-abstracted’ status (The Welland Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2007). The River Nene is an important source of water for public water supply, supplying water to fill and maintain both the Pitsford and Rutland reservoirs (both located outside this NCA). The River Nene and its main tributaries (the River Ise and Harpers Brook) have an ‘over-licensed’ CAMS status (The Nene Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2005)while the River Tove has CAMS status of ‘no water available’ (The Upper Ouse and Bedford Ouse Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2005).

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Water resources during dry months can be scarce. In severe cases, low flows and water levels can affect water supply causing restrictions to people and business. Provision of water for livestock from rivers may also be compromised.

The ability of a catchment to maintain a constant flow rather than experience flood and drought episodes is improved by healthy soils and vegetative cover, which improves infiltration of rainfall. Climate change is likely to result in more intense precipitation events with warmer, drier summers in the long term, and future demand for water both for crop irrigation and public water supply is likely to increase.

Water should be used sustainably and land management practices encouraged that which will increase water infiltration.

A partnership vision for the Welland Valley exists with an ambition for the River Welland, from its source to the sea including all associated watercourses, to

• Be cleaner and healthier.
• Support more fish, birds, and other wildlife.
• Meet the needs of drinking-water suppliers and business.
• Provide a more attractive amenity for people to enjoy.
• Be sensibly managed by everyone whose activities affect it.

The Nene Valley has a similar approach and vision, working in partnership to deliver a Nature Improvement Area.

Opportunities – Appropriately manage the rivers and tributaries of the Welland and Nene to protect the main water and recreation resources within the area.

Seek opportunities to restore semi-natural habitats such as wet woodland and grazing marsh to improve water storage capacity while reducing flood risk and soil erosion, improving water quality, climate regulation, habitat networks and ecosystem resilience to climate change.

Work with other partners to implement the Welland Improvement Plan and Nene Valley Nature Improvement Area objectives to tackle water resource and flow issues.

Work in collaboration with riparian land owners and managers, potentially through the Catchment Sensitive Farming Scheme to manage watercourses to prevent diffuse pollution entering the water courses and allow water table levels to rise where appropriate

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Orchards

State – Local varieties of apples and pears such as the cooking apple ‘Eady’s Magnum’ which was developed in about 1908 by Miss D.A. Eady of Wellingborough, are locally grown fruit.

There are initiatives underway to encourage native orchards such as Wilson’s Orchard in Northampton.

Main beneficiary – Local

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

Opportunities – Seek to encourage viable harvests of local varieties of fruit to secure their future.

Work with orchard owners and the local community to explore the potential to develop the brand and a local market for quality local fruit produce.

Seek to raise the profile of the produce and its historical significance with the area through branding.

Promote the production of the fruit as a good way of enhancing the biodiversity and landscape of the area

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils
• Existing woodlands

State – The soils can support a potential high yield for short rotation coppice (SRC) and a medium potential miscanthus yield.

The existing woodland cover (4 per cent of the NCA) is currently only used to produce small volumes of material for local wood fuel.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – The potential yield for short rotation coppice (SRC) is generally high in the NCA, although there are areas with medium/low SRC potential to the north of Northampton, to the north of Wellingborough and between Oundle and the south of Peterborough.

The potential miscanthus yield in the NCA is generally medium, although there are some areas of high potential yield around Northampton and in the south-west and north-east of the NCA towards Peterborough. For information on the potential landscape impacts of biomass plantings within the NCA, refer to the tables on the Natural England website.

Local woodland offers some potential for the provision of biomass, through bringing unmanaged woodland under management.

Opportunities – Seek opportunities to plant energy crops to increase biomass production while maintaining the overall character of the landscape.

Ensure good soil management to keep soils fertile and increase biomass opportunities by increasing organic matter inputs.

Bring unmanaged areas of woodland back into management to increase biomass production from existing areas of appropriate woodland.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biomass energy
• Climate regulation
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating soil quality
• Biodiversity
• Timber provision
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils
• Existing woodlands
• Grazing marsh
• Pasture
• Reedbeds
• Woodland and hedgerows
• Urban forest (trees and woodlands)
• Greenspace network including large public parks
• Green infrastructure

State – The mineral soils over the majority of the NCA have low carbon content. There are however, a number of pockets of soil in the NCA with a slightly higher carbon content (5 to 10 per cent) which may be associated with the small areas of loamy and clayey flood plain soils with naturally high groundwater (covering 9 per cent of the NCA). These are mainly mineral soils but some may be peaty at depth or include small volumes of peaty soils.

Higher carbon levels may also be associated with the soils of areas of flood plain grazing marsh, wet woodland, lowland meadows, reedbeds, and other semi-natural permanent grasslands where the soils will have remained undisturbed over a long period allowing organic matter to build up.

Trees in streets and public open spaces throughout the NCA provide shading to buildings and people. Trees, woodlands, and some vegetated green spaces regulate air temperature through evapotranspiration. This can impact on public health particularly in periods of high temperature.

Trees also remove pollutants from the air, improving air quality and capture carbon.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Carbon sequestration and storage in mineral soils could be raised by improving soil structure, steadily increasing organic matter inputs to cultivated soils, and by reducing the frequency and area of cultivation (while avoiding the potential impacts on other ecosystem services such as water quality through diffuse pollution). Soil carbon and soil carbon storage will be higher under areas of woodland, pasture, reedbeds and grazing marsh.

Temperature regulation is a particular challenge for urban areas which suffer the urban heat island effect, where the urban fabric absorbs and retains heat during the day and releases it at night, preventing urban areas and its inhabitants from cooling down.

Opportunities – Encourage the maintenance of permanent pasture to allow increases in soil carbon storage, with a subsequent improvement in soil quality.

Maintain woodland in good condition to benefit carbon storage in soils.

Increase appropriate woodland management (such as coppicing and pollarding) to increase both sequestration and the resilience of woodlands to climate change.

Ensure that any new woodland planting is generally appropriate, making a contribution to increasing the overall semi-natural habitat coverage in the region and integrating and enhancing the landscape, as well as boosting carbon storage.

Promote the use of the ‘right tree, right place principle’ for tree planting to take account of future climate change.

Identify areas within the urban realm that can help offset the urban heat island effect.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Climate regulation
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Regulating soil quality

No information available.

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers, streams, and reservoirs and other large waterbodies
• Permanent pasture
• Woodlands and hedgerows
• Soils

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 – Wider application of best practice land management (Catchment Sensitive Farming techniques) would reduce nutrient and pesticide losses to water from agricultural holdings, increase best practise storage, handling and use of pesticides to reduce the loss to groundwater or watercourses, improve soil and manure management on agricultural holdings, improve the management of drainage water and dirty water on farm yards, limit the pathways for pesticides and nutrients entering the river.

Water quality can be enhanced by ensuring that the rivers are kept in good condition, semi- natural vegetation used as buffer strips, and reedbeds as filtration systems that would also increase biodiversity and naturally filter the water enhancing the quality.

Pressures affecting water quality include land use change, agricultural intensification and high levels of phosphorous from sewage treatment works and road run-off.

Himalayan balsam, a non-native invasive plant which colonises the river banks, is also preventing native riverside plant species to thrive which in turn increases the amount of fine sediment entering the channel through surface run-off.

Slowing the pathway of run-off could have significant impacts on regulating soil erosion and subsequent sedimentation, biodiversity and soil and pollution sources from urban areas.

Opportunities – Appropriately manage the rivers, streams and reservoirs to support and protect their biodiversity and ensure good water quality.

Promote the Welland Implementation Plan and the Nene Valley Nature Improvement Area to domestic, agricultural and industrial stakeholders to improve the quality of the water in this catchment.

Promote the Catchment Sensitive Farming Scheme to farmers and landowners.

Ensure good management of woodlands and hedgerows so that they can act as natural barriers to run-off.

Provide buffer strips of semi- natural vegetation around the reservoirs and along the river banks, and increase the quantity of reedbeds to naturally filter the water.

Identify pollution pathways from urban areas and introduce green infrastructure where possible to improve downstream water quality.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers and streams
• Soils
• Semi-natural habitats; woodlands, flood plain grazing marsh
• Gravel extraction sites
• Green infrastructure in and around urban areas

State – The majority of the NCA is located within the River Nene catchment. The River Nene has a history of flooding. Flood risk in the NCA is generally caused by high rainfall which leads to watercourses and drains being overwhelmed, flood defences being overtopped or raised embankments breached. Numerous engineering schemes have been implemented to reduce flood risk in the NCA including a number of Flood Storage Reservoirs (FSRs) that provide protection; for example, Barnwell, Harrowden, Wilby, Northampton Washlands and Billing Brook detention ponds.

Construction of flood walls and embankments in Thrapston, Kislingbury and Central Northampton also provide protection.

Gravel extraction sites are prominent along the Nene.

Green infrastructure measures incorporated into more recent developments around the main towns are contributing to the reduction of flood risk.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Flood storage areas on the flood plain can reduce flood risk to settlements downstream and the preferred approach to future flood management is to investigate flood storage options potentially combined with environmental enhancements including improving the natural state of the rivers and their habitats.

Opportunities along the rivers where bank and channel maintenance can be reduced are being investigated. This will improve the flow between the rivers and their flood plains and increase water storage on the natural flood plain,.

New woodland planting schemes along banks and on the flood plain could also help slow the flow of water thereby further reducing flooding events.

Potentially the risk of major flood events could increase with climate change and there is a major opportunity to significantly enhance the regulation of water flow by restoring and creating multi-functional semi-natural habitats within the main river corridors to encourage the river to respond to varying levels of water flow more naturally.

Opportunities – Work together with the Environment Agency and other stakeholders to implement the River Welland and the River Nene Catchment Flood Management Plans.

Manage the aquatic habitats and flood plain habitats to help attenuate run-off.

Where feasible re-naturalise the rivers and restore them to their original courses, cease unnecessary bank and channel maintenance where appropriate so that wetland habitats can be developed that help to regulate water flow.

Use the opportunity to take old workings of gravel extraction sites, especially along the Nene, and turn them into additional wetlands with multi-functional semi-natural habitats that can help balance water flows. This would also enhance biodiversity and recreation.

Plan for and encourage the incorporation of green infrastructure into new and existing developments that helps to store water and attenuate peak flows of water originating in urban areas.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils
• Areas of semi-natural habitat: woodlands, hedgerows
• Permanent grassland

State – A quarter of the NCA has lime-rich loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage. They are calcareous soils with some natural resilience and enhanced workability.

The freely draining slightly acid but base-rich soils (a fifth of the area) also have some calcareous layers that provide some natural resilience and enhanced workability. Development of iron pans can occur in this soil type.

Both soil types are at risk of soil compaction and poaching. The freely draining lime-rich loamy soils (covering a fifth of the area) are shallow and droughty but as in the other soils described above, their calcareous nature means they have a degree of natural resilience and, as above, increased organic matter content can improve soil structure.

The slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils (21 per cent) may suffer compaction and/ or capping as they are easily damaged when wet. In turn this may lead to increasingly poor water infiltration and diffuse pollution as a result of surface water run-off. Management measures that increase organic matter levels can again help reduce these problems.

Woodland cover and semi-natural habitat particularly permanent grassland, although only covering less than one per cent of the area, provides important areas of undisturbed soils with increased organic matter by which to judge the quality of other soils.

Hedgerows in the area are overall in poor condition however they are important to maintaining soil quality by introducing some permanence and stability to the farmed environment.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Soils throughout the area are easily damaged when wet and therefore it is important to minimise compaction which will tend to exacerbate problems resulting from increased run-off.

To counter this, best farming practices should be encouraged such as reducing machinery operations on more vulnerable soils and during protracted wet periods, encouraging permanent leys to improve soil structure and minimising cultivation activity where possible and appropriate.

Stabilising the soil and increasing the organic matter could be enhanced and managed around the network of hedgerows and increasing the amount of semi-natural habitat within the farmed environment would also have multiple benefits increasing biodiversity and the landscape features that contribute to sense of place.

Opportunities – Maintain good soil structural condition and enhance soil organic matter levels.

Encourage best farming practices to improve soil structure.

Where appropriate, work with partners to steadily increase the cover of woodland and network of hedgerows.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils
• Woodlands
• Hedgerows
• Pasture
• Semi-natural habitats

State – The majority of the soils in this NCA are at risk of erosion. The soils in the NCA fall broadly into three categories with regard to erosion characteristics:

• Soils with impeded drainage.
• Freely draining soils.
• Seasonally wet/flood plain soils.

The freely draining soils, covering approximately a third of the NCA include the freely draining slightly acid but base-rich soils; freely draining lime-rich loamy soils and; freely draining slightly acid loamy soils. There is potential for wind erosion on some coarse textured cultivated variants of the freely draining slightly acid loamy soils.

Semi-natural habitats including woodlands (accounting for around four per cent of the area), hedgerows and permanent pasture within the farmed landscape provide areas of higher soil stability.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The lime-rich loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage are easily compacted by machinery or livestock if accessed when wet, increasing the risks of soil erosion by surface water run-off, especially on steeper slopes.

Increasing the network of semi-natural habitats would increase the area of land maintained under stable conditions, reducing the risk of soil erosion and also strengthen the opportunities for the movement of species, increase landscape features that contribute to sense of place and to tranquillity.

Well-timed cultivations, when feasible, and access onto land by low-pressure machinery and stock to prevent compaction and poaching would contribute to regulating soil erosion and improve soil quality.

Maintaining good structural condition and enhancing organic matter will improve soil structure, root penetration and water infiltration

Opportunities – Work with partners across the NCA to increase woodland and shelter belts and restore hedgerows in poor condition to act as wind breaks and to bind soil in proximity.

Increase the condition of riparian habitats beside both small and major watercourses, reintroducing a strong network of habitats.

Work with landowners to encourage well-timed cultivations and access onto land by machinery and stock to prevent compaction and poaching.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Hedgerows
• Arable
• Grazing marsh
• Lowland meadow

State – Habitats in the NCA such as the 3,100 ha of grazing marsh and small areas of lowland meadow are likely to support a variety of pollinators and nectar sources

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Extended networks of species-rich hedgerows, lowland meadow and grazing marsh will help to maintain a diverse range of flora which flower over a prolonged period of time and provide a good habitat for pollinating invertebrates to move through and between food crops. It will also aid biodiversity and help to retain more ‘rural’ areas within the NCA.

Arable farming has risen slightly in this NCA and the contribution of pollination services to commercial food production could be an important service in the area.

An increase to the populations of pollinators may facilitate an increase in the types of crops that could be commercially grown in the future.

Opportunities – Promote good management of hedgerows to ensure they provide a good network of habitat which supports viable populations of pollinating invertebrates capable of moving through and between food crops.

Work together with farmers and landowners to increase the population of pollinators enabling a more diverse range of crops to be grown in the future expanding the range of food provision thus increasing resilience to the effects of climate change.

Seek opportunities to increase the area of semi-natural habitat, where appropriate, such as grazing marsh and lowland meadow and through the use of floristically diverse margins to arable fields in the farmed environment.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pollination
• Food provision
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating soil quality
• Climate regulation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Woodland
• Hedgerows
• Arable margins

State – Many of the well-established semi-natural habitats in this area support a variety of predatory species, such as beetles, which can contribute to the regulation of populations of invertebrates like aphids which can be regarded as a pest species when they affect food crops.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Semi-natural habitats and hedgerows proximal to areas of commercial agriculture may support species of predators which can help regulate populations of pests that adversely affect food crops.

Fragmentation and poor connectivity in the network of habitats may limit the movement and effectiveness of predatory species.

Opportunities – Enhance and expand the network of semi-natural habitats that aid the movement of predatory species and bring benefits for pest regulation within food crops, as well as pollination and biodiversity.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pest regulation
• Food provision
• Pollination
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Clay vales
• River valleys
• Riverside trees and woodlands
• Hedgerows and enclosures
• Attractive village and town centres
• Church spires and towers
• Local stone in buildings
• Large waterbodies

State – Sense of place is provided by a series of low lying, gentle clay vales and river valleys including the rivers Nene and Welland and their tributaries.

The limited (4 per cent of the NCA) woodland cover that does exist has a significant impact on the landscape.

The hedgerow resource In some areas has been neglected due to lack of management or over-management, and has led to the decline of the overall structure of the landscape and an increase in the visual dominance of urban influences.

There has been substantial development of large edge-of town buildings and new roads, notably the M1 and A14, which can be intrusive in what is often a very open landscape. Urban expansion, in particular along the Nene Valley, will continue to reinforce the 20th-century character of the landscape, adding commercial and recreational features alongside housing.

The extraction of aggregates along the Nene Valley especially has resulted in a ‘new’ landscape of open waterbodies and wetlands.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Management to maintain locally distinctive features and elements is likely to increase sense of history.

Conserving and enhancing the distinct, but in places, changing landscape character is likely to benefit biodiversity by enhancing the range of habitats, such as woodlands, open waterbody and wetland habitats.

Development is bringing about a change in the landscape making the topography and landform which are defining elements of the landscape, less legible. The open nature of the landscape means it is particularly vulnerable to large, visually intrusive development, which can compete with the strong pattern of settlement with historic and visually prominent focal points at their cores, most notably church spires and towers.

The changing character of the valley floors from open flood meadows and pasture to post- extraction open waterbodies and wetlands is creating a new landscape with many opportunities and associations.

Opportunities – Manage and protect the locally distinctive and visually prominent features and elements of the area.

Protect the area’s distinctive character by maintaining and restoring the pattern of pasture, hedgerows, woodland, parkland and river valleys where appropriate.

Protect and manage woodlands, particularly ancient and semi- natural woodlands.

Encourage the use of local stone in new buildings and restoration.

Support the creation of new landscapes following aggregate extraction that provide multi benefits for people and wildlife.

Encourage the use of green infrastructure planning that is based on and reinforces existing landscape character and integrates new development into the area without challenging the existing strong pattern of settlement and enclosure.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Cropmarks, earthworks and other below ground archaeological remains
• Villages with dominant church spires and towers
• Canals
• Medieval open field system
• Historic country houses and parklands

State – Significant and substantial archaeological remains have been recovered through the process of aggregate winning in the main valleys and may point to substantial and important historic evidence existing across the area.

In 1918 about three per cent of the area was historic parkland. By 1995 it is estimated that nearly half of the 1918 area had been lost. About a third of the remaining parkland is covered by a Historic Parkland Grant, and a tenth is included in an agri-environmental scheme. About three quarters of historic, listed farm buildings remain unconverted. Most are intact structurally.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Many of the historic assets such as the ridge and furrow earthworks and other buried archaeological remains are potentially at risk from deep and repeated cultivation.

The impact of development could lead to the expansion of the smaller villages that might be out of keeping with local character and diminish their heritage significance and value.

Parkland within the area may continue to be at risk due to the encroachment of suburban development, fragmentation of ownership and pressure for arable production.

Managing and enhancing these assets could increase recreation and sense of history and place.

Opportunities – Protect and maintain the remaining ridge and furrow encouraging the adoption of best practice soil and land management.

Maintain and protect historic setting and visibility of distinctive buildings and landmarks which strongly reflect the traditional character of the area including country houses and churches.

Use traditional, local building materials for construction, extension and repair work.

The careful planning of new development should seek to enhance the setting and conservation value of heritage assets throughout the area.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rural areas
• Waterbodies and rivers
• Parkland and woodland

State – Tranquillity levels have declined. Undisturbed areas have decreased from just over 59 per cent in the 1960s to just 29 per cent in 2007. The largest areas of remaining tranquillity lie to the south-west and east of Market Harborough, away from the main transport corridors and major settlements.

A sense of tranquillity is likely to be particularly associated with the small pockets of woodland largely on valley sides and ridges, the riparian and wetland landscapes of the valley floors and particularly the more secluded and more remote, narrower valley of the Welland and the major parkland estates found throughout the area.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Tranquillity has been reduced as a result of urban expansion, road improvements and increased traffic levels, with the Vales crossed by a large number of trunk roads, not least the routes of the M1, A45, A6 and A14.

Pressures on tranquillity come with more development around Northampton, Wellingborough and Market Harborough.

In this low-lying, open landscape light pollution is a particularly intrusive element, mainly from major edge-of-town developments and along transport routes.

Opportunities – Maintain the quiet rural character of the area where it persists by carefully managing development, particularly in secluded valleys, smaller settlements and along the network of winding green lanes will help conserve some areas of tranquillity.

Conserve more remote areas from development by working to ensure traditional settlement patterns are retained and maintain relative high levels of tranquillity.

Identify the sources of high levels of light and noise pollution and seek to mitigate the effects by careful landscape planning, or directly seek to reduce lighting levels where appropriate.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Tranquillity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Biodiversity
• Sense of history

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rights of way network
• Country parks
• Gravel extraction sites

State – Recreation is supported by the area’s 1,178 km rights of way network (with a density of 1.3 km per km²) as well as a small area of open access land totalling just over 14 ha (0.01 per cent of the NCA).

Opportunities for recreation have been provided in more than 50 pocket parks in Northamptonshire in partial compensation for the lack of accessible countryside and common land.

Stanwick Lakes is a very large wildlife and water- based recreation site which has been recognised as an award winning green infrastructure development. The Sywell Reservoir and Country Park is also a popular local attraction.

Other areas of recreational interest include Ecton Brook Linear Park which has picnic areas along its length, Irchester Country Park and the Stoke Albany and East Carlton Countryside Park and Heritage Centre.

Many of the country parks are formed from the disused gravel extraction sites.

There are a significant number of large parks and open spaces within the major towns, for example Abington Park, the Racecourse, Hunsbury Hill (also a notable iron-age hill fort) and Bradlaugh Fields in Northampton.

Northamptonshire has been a forerunner in developing green infrastructure and considerable accessible greenspace has been incorporated into development around the main
towns

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – It is likely that recreational opportunities could be increased without significant effects on other services particularly by further increasing the provision of green infrastructure linking Northampton with the wider countryside and by encouraging the further management and restoration of old gravel workings to wetlands.

Sympathetic planning and management of sites such as the country parks should seek to lessen any negative effects of increased recreation on tranquillity and biodiversity and would offer local communities and visitors’ opportunities to engage with the natural environment.

Opportunities – Maintain and extend public access routes within the NCA, linking where possible with existing routes such as the Nene Way.

Promote the recreational and educational opportunities afforded by the network of rights of way and improved access to the open countryside from Northampton, which could have a beneficial effect on people’s health and well-being and provide solutions for sustainable transport.

Promote and add to recreational opportunities by implementing the local green infrastructure strategy.

Encourage the management and restoration of quarry wetlands and the creation of new wetland habitats.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Recreation
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Biodiversity
• Regulating water quality
• Climate regulation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• SSSI
• Local sites
• Reservoirs
• Rivers
• Woodlands
• Flood plain grazing marsh lowland meadows
• Reedbeds
• Hedgerows

State – Just less than 5 per cent of the NCA area is priority habitat including 3,132 ha of flood plain grazing marsh, 462 ha of wet woodland, 230 ha of lowland meadows and smaller areas of reedbed, undetermined grassland, lowland calcareous grassland, fens and of lowland mixed deciduous woodland.

In 2011, the Upper Nene Valley Gravel Pits SPA was designated. It forms 1.5 per cent of the NCA centred on the Stanwick Lakes complex.

Just less than 2 per cent of the NCA area is nationally designated as SSSI more than half of which is in unfavourable recovering condition.

More than 4 per cent of the area is identified as Local Wildlife Sites.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – Pressures on the biodiversity resource include the effects of pollutants in the river systems and the reservoirs that also affect water quality and quantity.

There are also the impacts of climate change that may cause fluctuation of water levels and water temperature, drought, and migration of species

Development may reduce areas of biodiversity or conversely provide opportunities through green infrastructure to increase biodiversity networks.

Projects such as the Nature Improvement Area, Welland Valley Partnership and the River Ise, revitalise and also aim to re-connect and re- create biodiversity networks.

Opportunities – Continue to work with and encourage partners to get SSSI into favourable condition.

Encourage local management and planning for local wildlife sites.

Conserve the longevity of ancient trees, and identify suitable specimens to replace the stock of ageing ancient trees in the country parks and hedgerows.

Work with partners and projects, such as the Nature Improvement Area, to build appropriate networks of habitats across the area to strengthen biodiversity, sense of place and assist in the regulation of soil erosion, soil quality and water quality.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating soil erosion
• Recreation
• Climate regulation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Geology
• Soils
• Aggregates

State – There are 6 geological SSSI in the area and 22 Local Geological Sites.

The area is underlain by fertile and versatile soils and three quarters of the area is recognised as Grade 3 agricultural land.

To the east of the Northamptonshire Clay Wolds, the younger, harder rocks of the Inferior Oolite Group extend south-west to north-east through Northampton juxtaposed with outcrops of the Great Oolite Group along the Nene.

Deposits of clay, sand and gravel are scattered throughout the NCA. Along the valley of the Nene there are deposits of sands and gravel that provide evidence of past processes, climate and human activities in the landscape. These deposits have been commercially worked for aggregate in many locations, revealing that evidence, and the working of these has in places had a significant landscape impact.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – With only 6 SSSI and 22 local sites it is important to protect and enhance the features which are of geological interest. This could have additional benefits for biodiversity and recreation as well as soil and water quality.

The geological resource provides us with a record of past environmental change, helping us to understand and plan for future environmental change and the impacts it may have on landscapes and biodiversity.

The character of local towns and villages can be retained through using the geological resource as a building material to ensure that sense of place is maintained.

It is important to retain the quality, structure and condition of the fertile soils in this NCA for the retention of the geomorphological processes and features and for maintaining food production.

Opportunities – Conserve, manage and promote the nationally and locally important geological SSSI and Local Geological Sites.

Support the Local Geodiversity Action Plan particularly opportunities to increase access to and interpretation of geological exposures.

Use traditional building materials for construction, extension and repair work.

Use the geological resource to provide educational opportunities to understand past environmental change and support future climate change adaptation.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Geodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Biodiversity
• Recreation
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating soil quality