115 - Thames Valley : 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: Plan for the enhancement of the area’s rivers, and the expansion of their operational flood plains and associated wetland habitats, aiding the regulation of water flow, improving water quality, benefiting biodiversity, and reinforcing cultural heritage and landscape.

For example by:

• Restoring natural river geomorphology where it brings benefits for biodiversity, and regulating the flow of water – where necessary maintaining modifications that allow for recreational activities.
• Improving the maintenance of rivers and ordinary watercourses feeding into the Thames, and supporting river improvement initiatives within and beyond the NCA, such as the Chilterns Chalk Streams Project.
• Bringing rivers back into continuity with their flood plains, and allowing the seasonal inundation of land where it will contribute to flood alleviation and benefit biodiversity.
• Providing compensatory flood plain areas where the natural flood plain has been lost to development or ground-raising.
• Protecting, restoring and expanding meadows and other wetland habitats on flood plains, to create robust networks that enhance biodiversity and landscape, while helping to alleviate downstream flooding and improving water quality.
• Restoring and managing wet woodlands, including riverside willows and belts of poplar along the Thames flood plain, improving biodiversity and the regulation of water flows, and providing a local source of woodfuel.
• Ensuring that scrub and woodland is maintained to provide a habitat for songbirds – particularly nightingale, which was once a key species in this area.
• Forming corridors using restored rivers to link sites that benefit wildlife, enabling greater movement of species. Also incorporating access provision to allow for the movement of people.
• Working with farmers, landowners and interest groups within and beyond the NCA to promote the use of soil and nutrient management plans, and to raise awareness of codes of best practice.

  

SEO 2

SEO 2: Plan for the landscape-scale enhancement of the area’s extensive gravel workings and other open waterbodies (including reservoirs) forming part of the South-West London Waterbodies Special Protection Area, for their contribution to water supply and storage, for their important habitats and recreation facilities, and for their geological interest.

For example by:

• Focusing biodiversity improvements on areas such as Loddon Valley Gravel Pits, Bray to Eton Pits and Meadows, Colne Valley Gravel Pits and Reservoirs, Thorpe and Shepperton, and Molesey and Hersham.
• Creating attractive new wetlands linking with wider wetland habitats on flood plains, to aid flood management in areas such as the Lower Thames and Kennet Valley. Creating a robust network of wildlife habitats, benefiting biodiversity, reinforcing landscape character and helping to regulate water quality.
• Managing the risk of spreading non-native invasive species to new sites through human activity, for example by promoting the ‘Check, Clean, Dry’ campaign.
• Where appropriate, incorporating features to support recreational pursuits such as bird-watching, sailing, fishing and walking, to encourage engagement with nature, to contribute to the health and wellbeing of the population, and to boost the local economy.
• Encouraging imaginative solutions to conflicts between various activities, should these arise.
• Protecting the surviving geological heritage of the area by conserving important geological exposures, improving the condition of existing sites, and maintaining features and exposures. Improving access where appropriate, to promote an understanding and enjoyment of geodiversity and of its importance in forming the landscape.
• Developing restorative management of Local Geological Sites, offering opportunities for volunteering and community engagement while encouraging an appreciation of the palaeontological resource.

SEO 3

SEO 3: Maintain existing greenspace and plan for the creation of green infrastructure associated with the significant projected growth of urban areas, to reduce the impact of development, to help reduce flooding issues, and to strengthen access and recreation opportunities. Seek links from urban areas to wider recreation assets such as the Thames Path National Trail, National Cycle Routes, and the river and canal network, and promote the incorporation of best practice environmental measures into any new development.

For example by:

• Creating multi-functional natural green space surrounding new development, linking into the heart of urban areas as part of comprehensive green infrastructure planning. This provides the wider benefits of enhancing the landscape and reducing the ‘heat island’ effect, as well as aiding water regulation, carbon sequestration, and habitat adaptation to climate change through the creation of robust habitat networks, and also supporting the local provision of woodfuel.
• Protecting and maintaining semi-urban green spaces such as commons, village greens and churchyards as areas for community engagement with nature, exercise and biodiversity.
• Encouraging the introduction of measures to encourage biodiversity, such as enhanced habitat provision within urban developments (for example bat roosts and swift nest boxes).
• Incorporating recreational green space for the health and wellbeing of residents and visitors.
• Creating sustainably-managed broadleaved woodlands along transport corridors, improving noise reduction, air quality and assimilation into the landscape, while benefiting biodiversity and climate regulation.
• Ensuring that development and its associated infrastructure (including light and noise) do not intrude on the wider landscape – particularly on heritage assets, surviving small-scale villages and the special qualities of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
• Promoting the incorporation of sustainable urban drainage systems to reduce flood risk, and water conservation measures to support water resources and to manage demand.
• Encouraging initiatives that support rural businesses and the viability of farming in the area, and that provide opportunities for local populations to engage with the natural environment.
• Using green space creation and tree planting to buffer noise, reduce air and noise pollution, reduce soil erosion, improve water quality and enhance perceptions of tranquillity.
• Extending and improving existing rights of way and cycle networks to provide better links between – and access to – green space and heritage assets.
• Ensuring that spatial planning and design for urban development and infrastructure aim to reduce surface water run-off, protect and restore habitats, improve the quality of rivers and groundwater, and so protect drinking water supplies.
• Creating new wetlands as part of sustainable urban drainage systems, particularly in the Lower Thames area. Linking with wider wetlands within flood plains to aid flood management, create a robust wildlife habitat, regulate water quality and benefit biodiversity.

  

SEO 4

SEO 4: Protect and manage the area’s historic parklands, wood pastures, ancient woodland, commons, orchards and distinctive ancient pollards, and restore and increase woodland for carbon sequestration, noise and pollution reduction, woodfuel and protection from soil erosion, while also enhancing biodiversity, sense of place and history.

For example by:

• Restoring and sustainably managing the area’s historic parkland and wood pasture.
• Identifying and creating a new generation of pollards. Reintroducing pollard management where appropriate, to aid adaptation to the more extreme weather conditions resulting from climate change, benefiting the landscape, the cultural heritage and biodiversity.
• Restoring and sustainably managing traditional orchards where economically viable, using local fruit tree varieties.
• Conserving characteristic ancient trees in hedgerows, fields, historic parklands and areas of wood pasture.
• Restoring hedgerow field boundaries, especially to impede cross-land water flows within river catchments, prevent nutrient leaching and soil erosion, and form bridging gaps in the wildlife network. Also maintaining and restoring historic field patterns.
• Exploiting the growing popularity of ‘green’ and woodland burials to create broadleaved habitat and links between sites in areas where this would otherwise be very difficult.
• Maintaining and enhancing core strategic assets such as the Thames Path, Windsor Great Park, Langley Park, Denham Country Park, Richmond Park and Burnham Beeches within the wider network of local sites, rights of way and promoted routes.
• Advertising the benefits offered by the area’s accessible parkland and extending the range of activities such as orienteering, bushcraft, cycling and nature trails – but only where these do not intrude on the character of the park, or damage nature or heritage assets.
• Restoring, expanding and sustainably managing woodlands, including ancient woodland, for the prevention of soil erosion, carbon sequestration and storage, recreation, enhancing biodiversity and landscape, and providing a local source of woodfuel.
• Ensuring that access to the ancient woodland, veteran trees and other environmentally sensitive sites provides equality of opportunity and a connection with nature and history, without causing damage or degradation to these unique assets.

SEO 5

SEO 5: Develop the recreational, educational and commercial tourism opportunities offered by public access to – and engagement with – the historic buildings and landscapes in the area, such as Hampton Court Palace, Windsor Castle and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, for their contribution to a sense of place and to people’s enjoyment and understanding of the area.

For example by:

• Including extensions to public right-of-way networks and cycle routes where this provides strategic links between assets, and creating short- amenity routes or improved access to green spaces.
• Maintaining and restoring traditional buildings, including weather boarded timber-framed farm buildings in the western clay vale.
• Protecting heritage assets (particularly those at risk) through sensitive incorporation into new development, to encourage engagement with local populations and to reinforce a sense of place.
• Encouraging the dispersal of visitor pressures through investment in high-quality infrastructure designed to meet the different needs and levels of use of all visitors, including local communities, recreational day-trippers and tourists.
• Encouraging sensitivity in development, particularly along the river, to avoid causing any detriment to the character of the historic features and landscape.
• Working with farmers, landowners and local authorities to encourage educational initiatives (such as open farms, improved access and interpretation) that promote engagement with the local environment and develop cultural identity and awareness.

Additional opportunity 1

Additional opportunity 1: Manage and enhance the area’s heathland and dry unimproved grassland habitats by restoring and expanding existing areas and linking sites.

For example by:

• Restoring and re-linking areas of lowland heathland to restore the extent and condition of this important resource and enhance adaptation to climate change, while also improving groundwater
  quality within the area and assisting in climate regulation through the storage of soil carbon.
• Restoring and expanding lowland dry acid grassland and (dry) lowland meadows, and connect with wide grassland buffer strips running across slopes and adjacent to watercourses, to help impede cross-land flows and improve water quality.
• Restoring and re-linking areas of lowland heathland on higher sandy ground in the north, especially within the South Bucks Heaths and Parklands Biodiversity Opportunity Area, to restore the extent and condition of this important resource.
• Working with the Thames Basin Heaths Joint Strategic Partnership to co- ordinate heathland restoration and encourage measures to avoid any adverse impact on the SPA.