108 - Upper Thames Clay Vales : 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: Along the Thames and its tributaries, promote sustainable farming and best practice mineral working in order to conserve and restore semi- natural habitats, historic features, geodiversity, soil quality and soil carbon stores and also to regulate water flow in this area and downstream. Ensure conservation of Oxford Meadows Special Area of Conservation and North Meadow and Clattinger Farm Special Area of Conservation. Engage the public in river heritage and maintain traditional land management practices where appropriate.

For example by:

• Making reference to the Water Framework Directive, catchment management plans, local Landscape Character Assessments and other strategy documents. Draw on best practice developed by initiatives such as the Catchment Sensitive Farming Programme, the Nature After Minerals Programme and the Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) pilot developed in this National Character Area (NCA).
• Working across administrative and landownership boundaries to co- ordinate management along the length of watercourses and ditches. Co-ordination is relevant to ecological and physical processes, including the management of water levels. Restore and create habitats and corridors in order to improve resilience, ecosystem function and connectivity of the ecological network at a landscape scale.
• Where compatible with management of flood risk, continuing to restore or enhance as appropriate engineered watercourses to improve habitats, restore a more natural hydrological regime and re-connect watercourses with their flood plains.
• Identifying potential floodwater storage areas, including maximising opportunities around the restoration of mineral workings, and securing land uses that are flood compatible, including wet grassland.
• Considering and managing for climate change impacts on water levels. Identify those features that are sensitive to water level, including habitats, plant species and archaeology that are prone to drought or long-term submergence. Maintain and, where necessary, restore or create ditches and water level control structures.
• Managing improved and semi-natural grasslands and wetlands such as reedbed and wet woodland to slow run-off and filter pollutants. Also manage and create linear features such as hedgerows, ditches and grass strips to manage water flow and filter pollutants.
• Engaging communities in addressing sources of pollution and polluting practices in the rural and urban environment.
• Identifying areas of peat and deep soils that have higher carbon storage capacity. Manage these areas to minimise or avoid damage to soils, in some cases changing land use or restoring wetland habitat such as fen where appropriate.
• Conserving, restoring and creating wet grassland, reedbeds, ponds, species-rich ditches, lowland meadow and other semi-natural habitats. Focus creation and restoration around extending and linking existing areas of habitat in order to improve the function of ecological networks and secure management efficiencies.
• Identifying locations where arable farming is not sustainable in the long term and where arable reversion would increase benefits for biodiversity, regulation of water flow, regulation of water quality and conservation of soils. Support arable reversion by exploring and supporting markets for products of grasslands, including sustainable energy as developed in this area by the PES pilot.
• Where possible, making use of green hay and seeds from species-rich grasslands in the NCA to create and restore additional areas of species- rich grassland. Draw on best practice developed in the meadows in the Special Areas of Conservation and elsewhere to inform management of other meadows in the area.
• Providing suitable habitat for wildlife, particularly the area’s characteristic species and rare species, including breeding waders. Tackle problems associated with non-native species such as crassula and mink.
• Conserving veteran trees, including pollarded willow and black poplar. Conserve suckering elm as vestiges of a tree that was once widespread in this area. Ensure that there are successors to veteran trees and guard against pests and diseases. Draw on best practice developed in Aylesbury Vale and Cotswold Water Park around black poplar.
• Managing and restoring active extraction sites to benefit geodiversity, biodiversity, recreation and all the water ecosystem services where possible.
• Creating habitats through restoration schemes for mineral workings in a way that contributes to a coherent and resilient ecological network. Where environmental conditions allow, seek to realise more complex or ambitious restoration options such as reedbed. Ensure that the long-term, sustainable management of habitats is secured along with recreational benefits engaging the public in learning about local geodiversity and biodiversity.
• Maintaining traditional management where this conserves distinctive landscape characteristics, biodiversity and cultural heritage, for example lowland meadow and willow pollards. Engage the public in these traditions and associated heritage.
• Ensuring that recreation activities are appropriately managed across the NCA in order to avoid disturbance of breeding birds, poor experiences of tranquillity and potential conflict between user groups. Securing sustainable recreation is particularly important on ecologically fragile sites or where the negative impact would be significant.
• Conserving heritage assets along rivers, including Scheduled Monuments, historic buildings, bridges and historic watermeadows. Survey historic features and riverine landscapes to inform conservation and public engagement activities.
• Continuing to engage people in the cultural heritage of the Thames through events, interpretation and education. Secure an overview of the artistic and literary work associated with the Thames which contributes to sense of place.
• Engaging the public in the geodiversity of the River Thames, including fossils found in the river gravels. Ensure the conservation of such geodiversity, in particular geological Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and facilitate public access where possible.
• Along key sections of the Thames Path National Trail and associated key rights of way, seeking to maximise accessibility and to engage the public in the natural and cultural heritage. Review accessibility and interpretation of the Thames tributaries and make improvements where there is greatest opportunity.
• Conserving tranquillity as appropriate along the rivers and promoting rivers and lakes as places in which to experience tranquillity. People living in areas of low tranquillity will be target audiences for promoting river and lake recreation.

SEO 2

SEO 2: Manage farmland across the Upper Thames Clay Vales to produce food sustainably and maintain sense of place. Taking a catchment approach, improve filtration of pollutants and regulation of water flow by realising a farmland habitat mosaic that incorporates strategic areas of wet grassland, reedbed, wet woodland and ponds as well as ditches and hedgerows.

For example by:

• Making reference to the Water Framework Directive, catchment management plans, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) management plans, local Landscape Character Assessments and other strategy documents. Draw on best practice developed by initiatives such as the Catchment Sensitive Farming Programme, the Nature After Minerals Programme and the PES pilot developed in this NCA.
• Identifying locations prone to run-off, including access routes, sloping land and cultivated land, and seeking to impede run-off. Convert strategic areas of arable to grassland where possible.
• Adopting efficient chemical application methods such as precision farming. Where compatible with food production, encourage minimal use of chemicals and enhance biodiversity.
• Where arable reversion is sought in order to secure improved or alternative ecosystem services, exploring and supporting markets for products of grasslands, including sustainable energy as developed in this area by the PES pilot.
• Along watercourses, ditches and waterbodies, maintaining buffers to filter pollutants from run-off, which affects water quality and aquatic biodiversity. Create wet grassland, wet woodlands and reedbeds to filter pollutants and secure additional biodiversity benefits.
• Conserving soils to maximise filtration, thereby reducing rapid run-off and loss of soil. It is important to avoid compaction. Soil conservation will benefit plant growth and consequently food provision.
• Creating short- and long-term water storage to secure improved water availability but also to manage water flow so as to avoid flash flooding, for example, reservoirs can secure water supply at any scale over any period, including at the farm scale and ditches with control structures can be restored or created for managing water levels in a flood meadow or fen. Short-term floodwater storage applies to seasonally flooded grasslands and seasonal ponds and scrapes.
• Maintaining and enhancing the farmland habitat mosaic, restoring habitats such as fen, reedbed, wet grassland, ponds and wet woodland in historic locations where possible.
• Avoiding creation or expansion of woodland where there are benefits in retaining an open landscape, particularly in relation to breeding waders and valued views. Use tree stock of local provenance to guard against pests and diseases and conserve local species such as native black poplar and small leaved lime. Manage deer pressure.
• Providing and managing sufficient habitat for wildlife across farmland that is characteristic of this area, including brown hare, tree sparrow, curlew, otter, water vole, brown hairstreak butterfly, and barn owl.
• Providing nectar-rich habitats adjacent to insect-pollinated crops. Manage these habitats to support local biodiversity.
• Managing the farmland mosaic to regulate pests and diseases that affect food production and to support biodiversity. Achieve this by maximising heterogeneity of land use, providing habitat for natural predators and seeking genetic diversity. Incorporate features such as beetle banks and uncultivated field corners and strips into arable fields.

SEO 3

SEO 3: Ensure that heritage assets, especially characteristic features such as ridge and furrow, abandoned medieval villages, Roman roads, canals and historic parkland, including Blenheim Palace World Heritage Site, are maintained in good condition. Integrate conservation of these features with sustainable food production and provide public access to key examples. Seek opportunities to restore the wider historic setting of a feature, particularly in relation to the historic Royal Hunting Forests of Bernwood, Braydon and Wychwood.

For example by:

• Using historic characterisation of the area’s landscape and heritage features, improve understanding and management of historic features and their condition, significance and setting. Also draw on local Landscape Character Assessments and AONB management plans.
• Continuing to conserve and provide sustainable recreation in the Blenheim Palace World Heritage Site to maintain sense of history, sense of place and recreation interests. Assist the World Heritage Site Committee in delivering the Management Plan in support of the site’s Outstanding Universal Value.
• Improving the condition of heritage assets and features, including those on the Heritage at Risk register, and locally characteristic features such as ridge and furrow through appropriate measures and seeking to reduce conflicting or unsympathetic management regimes, while recognising the high potential in this landscape for undiscovered remains.
• Working with land managers to identify how to conserve historic features while also producing food in a sustainable way. Avoid ploughing damage to heritage assets, ideally by reversion to grass. Grassed monuments in the landscape can also conserve soils, filter pollutants from run-off and increase the heterogeneity of land use for the benefit of biodiversity.
• Engaging local communities and visitors in the historic landscape through a high-quality public access network, interpretation and education involving examples of key historic features. Draw on best practice visitor engagement and management developed at Blenheim Palace World Heritage Site. Further enhance people’s engagement with the heritage of canals.
• Working at the appropriate landscape scale to restore the setting of key features, including the historic Royal Hunting Forest landscapes of Bernwood, Braydon and Wychwood. Draw on work already carried out in these areas.
• Seeking to restore the mosaic of land uses (or habitats) of the ancient Royal Hunting Forests where this will maintain sustainable food provision and boost biodiversity, sense of history and recreation. Protect parkland trees from plough damage and manage deer pressure in order to support conservation and creation of woodland.
• Restoring Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites, particularly in the ancient Royal Hunting Forest areas. Secure management of woodland by supporting markets for woodland products.
• Maintaining public access to woodlands within the historic boundaries of the ancient Royal Hunting Forests and improving the accessibility of key rights of way in the area.
• Managing canals to conserve important heritage features, maximising sustainable recreation opportunities and providing corridors and habitat for wildlife.

SEO 4

SEO 4: Realise sustainable development that contributes positively to sense of place and built heritage. Ensure adequate greenspace in association with all development and most importantly in growing settlements such as Aylesbury and Swindon. Create and manage greenspace to provide benefits for biodiversity, floodwater management, filtration of pollutants, tranquillity and recreation, and secure strategic access routes between town and country.

For example by:

• Drawing on local Landscape Character Assessments, AONB management plans and historic landscape characterisation to define settlement pattern and local building materials and techniques.
• Ensuring that development outside urban and urban fringe settings is monitored and understood, as it is nationally significant in this NCA. Manage such development to avoid negative impacts – particularly impacts on the AONB, including their settings.
• Seeking to ensure that future development is designed to contribute positively to landscape character, focusing on local distinctiveness and being sensitive to setting. Ensure that design reflects an understanding of historic settlement pattern and traditional building materials and conserves significant heritage features. Reflect traditional building styles and incorporate traditional building materials into new development where possible. Identify the local sources of traditional building materials and establish sustainable extraction where possible. Conserve SSSI and Local Geological Sites through this work, including maintenance of access to exposures for research.
• Securing enhancements where possible, where existing development detracts from sense of place and other ecosystem services.
• Considering physical and functional links between settlements or development and the wider landscape, such as views and water flow. Manage the urban-rural fringe to contribute positively to landscape character.
• Incorporating new woodlands and tree screens into development as appropriate, taking care not to detract from the open landscape character of this NCA.
• Ensuring that there are green infrastructure links between town and country, providing access links for walkers, cyclists, less-able-bodied people and other user groups, particularly where greenspace is lacking and/or community health is poor.
• Managing canals in Aylesbury, Oxford and Swindon to provide sustainable recreation opportunities and habitat for wildlife. Integrating them into the wider network of access routes and green spaces and securing them as key corridors in the ecological network.
• Creating and managing green spaces so that they are accessible and tranquillity is maximised through for example, incorporating water features. Prioritise the creation and enhancement of greenspace where there is inadequate provision, for example in Aylesbury.
• Ensuring that development is water efficient and incorporates features such as sustainable urban drainage systems. Create and manage green spaces to store water, incorporating features such as seasonal ponds and reedbeds, which also have biodiversity interest and filter pollutants.
• Providing sufficient habitat in green spaces for local species, including nectar-rich habitat for pollinating insects. Manage these green spaces as part of an ecological network that links to gardens across a settlement.
• Engaging the public in settlement history, including guided walks to view historic buildings that use traditional building materials. Explore ideas with the public about how best to accommodate new development.