Draft Policy DM25 - Other Important Landscape Features

We support the need to ensure developments retain water and green features such as watercourses, ponds and lakes,where at all possible. These features help to form networks of green and blue infrastructure in developments, which have many benefits for adaptation to the impacts of climate change, including:
* Reducing the impact of urban run-off by reducing surface flow;
* Safeguarding areas for biodiversity and creating or retaining links between urban and rural areas;
* Improving water quality and attenuation;
* Reducing the impacts of the urban heat island effect;
* Providing shading for buildings and outdoor spaces; and
* Reducing particulates in the air and reducing noise levels.

Establishing ecological corridors and networks helps to form more ecologically resilient landscapes. The ability to design a joined up strategic green and blue infrastructure network can provide important connectivity to allow species to move around which will be important in the adaptation to climate change.

Designing and incorporating green and blue infrastructure into all scales of development, will form an important part in adapting to the impacts of climate change.

We support the inclusion of the text 'on-site environmental enhancements including opportunities to create/enhance/restore habitats will be sought'

In addition, to buildings the character of an area is made up of landscape, with the landscape made up of a range of landscape elements. In developing proposals for a site it is important to consider the various landscape elements and consider the contribution to the landscape but also the potential impact to develop a site efficiently (e.g. a single tree could affect access on to a site and its development potential). Therefore, the development of sites should consider the importance of landscape features (e.g. hedgerows), which could be removed in order to improve the layout and design of the resultant
development. However, the loss of any landscape feature should be mitigated by the inclusion of additional landscape features, which should include a range of native species to enhance the areas flora and fauna. This will ensure that development have a positive effect on the landscape character of the area.

The role these features play in supporting the "Green Tourism" objectives could be specifically mentioned, for example the role Lakes and Ponds play in providing fishing, walking, bird watching and other similar leasure pursuits