At a national scale the varied landscape of England has been mapped into a series of 159 National Character Areas (NCAs) – areas with a broadly similar landscape character.  Gloucestershire’s landscape mainly falls within NCA 105, Forest of Dean and Lower Wye; NCA 106, Severn and Avon Vales; and NCA 107, Cotswolds – we are a county of three distinct parts and each part has its own very distinctive character.

Much of Gloucestershire has been designated as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in national recognition of its special landscape qualities.  The County includes a substantial part of the Cotswolds AONB, designated in 1966 and extended in 1991, and the Wye Valley AONB, designated in 1971, together with a tiny part of the southern end of the Malvern Hills AONB, designated in 1959.  The Forest of Dean was first England’s National Forest Park and there has long been an aspiration for its designation also as an AONB, as originally proposed in the report of the Hobhouse Committee in 1947.

All landscapes matter and the finer grain of the landscape has been mapped in more local landscape character assessments prepared by the County Council and District Councils and for the AONBs.  We see the National Character Assessment and local character assessments as important in informing local plan policies and in determining development applications, and in guiding land management practices, all with the aim of retaining and strengthening local distinctiveness across the County. 

Our efforts are focussed on inputting into the preparation and review of local plans to ensure robust landscape policies, including criteria based policies where appropriate which reflect local distinctiveness, and we are working to support the efforts of the Cotswolds Conservation Board and the Wye Valley and Malvern Hills AONB partnerships in looking after these special areas.  We are also campaigning for the early designation of a Forest of Dean AONB.