14 - Tyne and Wear Lowlands : 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: Reverse the fragmentation of semi-natural habitats due to the industrial and urban expansion of Tyneside by extending, creating and linking habitats in rural areas, developing or regenerating urban green spaces/urban fringe and protecting brownfield sites with high biodiversity interest.

For example by:

• Restoring and creating a network of species-rich grasslands, woodlands and hedgerows in rural areas on and around agricultural land, including use of Environmental Stewardship.
• Maintaining the rare habitat of lowland heathland at Waldridge Fell through appropriate management interventions (scrub clearance, grazing, controlled burning or mechanical management).
• Creating buffers zones and habitat networks while improving soil and crop management by encouraging farmers and landowners to increase green cover crops such as grasslands on cultivated or bare soil and field margins, and adopting light grazing regimes on soils that are vulnerable to compaction.
• Encouraging the development of wildlife gardens, green roofs, street trees and other natural greenspace in urban areas to enhance habitat networks and benefit pollinators.
• Working in partnership with local authorities and the Highways Agency to create wild flower meadows in parks, verges and on roundabouts.
• Ensuring that planning policies adopt environmentally-friendly developments, incorporating green spaces and Local Wildlife Sites into urban areas, providing links to footpaths and cycle routes both locally and to the wider countryside and coast, and making a positive contribution to local character.
• Raising public awareness of the value of wildlife and habitats in urban environments and encouraging engagement with them.
• Protecting biodiverse brownfield land for its biodiversity interest, avoiding greening of these sites but, where appropriate, enhancing other ex-industrial derelict land by creating native broadleaved woodland or semi-natural grassland on former spoil heaps, and creating wetlands on former open cast extraction areas. Linking habitats by footpaths, cycle routes and bridleways wherever possible, particularly in urban fringe areas.
• Within larger urban settlements such as Newcastle upon Tyne, creating links to riverside habitats along the River Tyne, while providing recreation for local people.
• Minimising disturbance to breeding seabirds and wintering waders along the coast and estuary by encouraging the zoning of activities/ sensitive usage of the area.
• Planning for integrated coastal management, allowing natural coastal processes to occur, where feasible, to protect the impact of coastal erosion on coastal and estuarine habitats and the geology of the rocky headlands and sea cliffs.

SEO 2

SEO 2: Enhance and manage the Tyne and Wear river network and Tyneside coastal area to improve water quality and reduce flood risk, and to mitigate the effects of climate change.

For example by:

• Improving water quality in rivers flowing from urban and industrial sites by incorporating rain gardens, swales and green roofs into new and existing developments to attenuate water and provide wildlife habitats, and by pumping polluted water out of industrial sites such as disused coal mines.
• Reducing flood risk and enhancing biodiversity and landscape by creating multi-functional flood storage wetlands and restoring water meadows on lowland flood plains of rivers such as the Lower Derwent and Team.
• Improving water quality and water flow by increasing urban greenspace and woodland cover to intercept and infiltrate rainfall and impede run-off into the drainage systems and rivers.
• Maintaining the regional water transfer network with upland NCAs that have water reservoirs to control water flow, manage flood risk and ensure water availability.
• Seeking opportunities to work in partnership with the North Pennines NCA to encourage adoption of sustainable, upland land management practices to reduce downstream flooding. For example, by grip blocking on heather moorland and woodland planting to help control water flow.
• Expanding areas of semi-natural habitats such as woodland and permanent grassland to improve infiltration rates.
• Encouraging land management interventions that increase the carbon content of soils through increased organic matter so that they withstand periods of increased heavy rain, reducing sediment run-off, controlling water flow and increasing carbon storage. For example, by establishing areas of uncultivated land/permanent and semi-natural grassland and using green cover crops on agricultural land.
• Encouraging the adoption of light grazing regimes to reduce the release of greenhouse gases (methane) and soil compaction (by poaching), producing a good soil structure that reduces the erosion which causes sediment run-off into watercourses.
• Increasing the extent of and actively managing existing woodlands on valley slopes to improve infiltration of water, reduce soil erosion and pollutants that may leach into surface waters, and to increase carbon storage potential.
• Working with landowners and farmers to promote good nutrient management planning and adherence to government guidelines on nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ) regulations to help manage levels of fertiliser inputs on productive arable land.
• Allowing natural development of undefended sections of coastal frontage, wherever possible, to reduce the impact of coastal erosion and coastal squeeze on intertidal habitats and rocky cliffs and foreshore outcrops.
• Supporting policies that protect the natural, cultural and built heritage of the coastal area.

SEO 3

SEO 3: Conserve and enhance the network of green infrastructure – broadleaved woodlands characteristic of the Tyne and Wear river valleys, country estates in and around urban settlements and restored coal mining sites – to increase biodiversity, improve water and soil quality, provide tranquillity and recreation and enhance landscape character.

For example by:

• Conserving the characteristic, semi-natural, broadleaved oak, ash and alder woodland on steep-sided, narrow denes and bluffs overlooking small flood plains, such as those found in County Durham, for their biodiversity value, recreation opportunities, tranquillity and contribution to landscape character.
• Creating and extending new woodlands along valley slopes, on country estates and parklands and re-connecting semi-natural woodlands in urban areas by encouraging new Community Forest schemes to increase tranquillity and areas for recreation.
• Planning the location, species composition and design of new woodlands (including native species), to enhance biodiversity and ensure their design is sympathetic to the surrounding landscape character.
• Planning for the management and restoration of habitats that can provide valuable wildlife corridors by linking woodlands to hedgerows and species-rich grassland.
• Encouraging the development of accessible natural greenspace in urban areas, such as wildlife gardens, green roofs, street trees, wild flowers on verges and roundabouts, and meadows in parkland and common land such as Town Moor in Newcastle, to enhance habitat networks and provide areas for recreation and tranquillity.
• Ensuring that planning policies adopt environmentally-friendly developments incorporating green spaces and Local Wildlife Sites into urban areas, providing links to footpaths and cycle routes and making a positive contribution to local character, while raising public awareness of the value of wildlife and habitats in urban environments.

SEO 4

SEO 4: Use an understanding of the unique historic landscape and heritage features of the Tyne and Wear Lowlands NCA to provide opportunities for interpretation, education, wellbeing, recreation and tourism, and to inform good design in new development that respects the setting of heritage assets.

For example by:

• Seeking opportunities to encourage urban populations to engage with, learn about and enjoy the natural environment, utilising wildlife sites and Local Nature Reserves, restored industrial areas, creation of new woodlands (by developing Community Forest schemes), riverside walks, coastline, country parks, country estates, rural areas and common land such as Town Moor in Newcastle.
• Providing opportunities in the urban areas through the numerous Walking for Health schemes that operate throughout the NCA, allowing people access to their local greenspace through connecting routes in and around towns and cities such as Newcastle upon Tyne, Durham, Tynemouth and Spennymoor to improve health, wellbeing, tranquillity and experience of the natural and historic environment.
• Developing interpretation about wildlife, habitats and geodiversity for local communities and visitors along key locations on the River Tyne and along the coast, including exploring the potential for a coastal heritage trail; and interpreting the geology of the Tynemouth to Seaton Sluice SSSI that has been the basis of the coal mining industry, and the shaping of the landscape associated with the last ice age through visible glacial tills along the coast.
• Seeking opportunities to identify and manage Local Geological Sites and supporting research, education and interpretation by establishing geological links to the history and culture associated with industrial heritage and the shaping of the landscape through geology, including Tynemouth to Seaton Sluice geological SSSI, glacial tills along the coast, the exposed geology of disused quarries and the incised meander and gorges of the River Wear and the Denes.
• Exploring opportunities for circular routes off the Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail to promote wider access to, and appreciation of, the heritage of Newcastle upon Tyne and the tranquillity of the surrounding countryside for local communities and visitors.
• Conserving, managing and interpreting the history, culture and legacy of the coal mining and ship-building industries in and around Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and Tynemouth on former coal mining sites, the quaysides and port to benefit local communities and visitors.
• Managing the existing network of public rights of way and cycle routes, improving access by ensuring that paths are maintained, well signposted and cater for all levels of ability and interest, while linking urban access routes to the wider countryside and the coast.
• Managing and conserving the area’s heritage assets as an integral part of its distinctive landscape and improving their condition through appropriate measures, seeking to reduce conflicting or unsympathetic management regimes.
• Protecting and maintaining buildings of historic importance, including Newcastle’s Roman and Victorian heritage, the medieval character and World Heritage Site in Durham and the heritage conservation areas of Tynemouth, encouraging use of traditional building materials for appropriate developments and contributing to the strong sense of historic character of the NCA.
• Supporting the World Heritage Site committee’s management plan to deliver priorities concerning the sites’ ‘outstanding universal value’.
• Conserving and protecting remaining features of the coal mining industry, such as the winding towers and other artefacts.
• Managing future developments to incorporate green infrastructure, providing access to green spaces of relative tranquillity within towns, cities and the surrounding countryside and ensuring that new designs complement the many heritage assets within the towns, cities and coastal areas of the Tyne and Wear Lowlands NCA.
• Ensuring that there is a sustainable approach to land use planning with integration of coastal management policies into regeneration plans to protect the cultural, natural and built heritage of the coastal area.