LP10

Policy: LP10 - Landscape Proposal 10 (Area Plan South)

Landscape Proposal 10 is relevant, advice will normally be sought from the Department of Infrastructure.

Features, vistas and landscapes which are not included here (Chapter 4) are still important. Where applications for planning approval come forward for consideration outside settlements, it is required that each design response demonstrates how the landscape is understood, how the design responds to that landscape and how colours, materials and finishes are selected that are suitable and within the contextual setting. This Chapter does not elaborate on the character of urban landscapes of the East; protection and enhancement of these features can be found in Chapter 6 - Urban Environment.

The Natural Environment

Introduction

Planning for the environment exists at the crucial juncture between human settlements and natural ecosystems. The East has a wealth of both. Dominated by the major settlements of Douglas and Onchan, the East contains nine distinct towns and villages in all, as well as smaller settlements and scattered dwellings and farmsteads.

Archaeology is an important part of our cultural and historic environment in the East. The absence of large-scale industrialisation and expansive modern infrastructure on the Island means that a significant amount of surface archaeology is still visible in the rural landscape. Scandinavian influences overlay the Celtic landscape and, in more recent history, abandoned buildings, or tholtans, have become a distinctive feature of the Manx rural landscape. In other areas, non-intensive agricultural management regimes mean that subterranean archaeology has remained undetected and must be a consideration for development particularly of greenfield sites outside of existing settlement boundaries.

Both scheduled and non-designated archaeological assets are a valuable resource for research and education, but can also be an asset for the promotion of leisure and tourism. Their interpretation and presentation to the public should be encouraged. However, such assets are a finite, and in some cases, fragile resource. They can be vulnerable to a wide range of activities, both manmade and natural.

Centuries of agricultural practice has left behind a distinctive landscape of small fields and managed uplands dotted with standing stones and tholtans, demonstrating the visible impact of human influence on the natural environment of the plan area. An array of semi-natural environments surrounds these human features, from rugged coastline at Port Soderick to wetlands in Onchan to exposed heather heath leading to Slieau Ruy and Injebreck Hill.

The separation between the built environment and the natural environment can be physically abrupt, separation coming at times in the form of a road such as that at the northern end of Johnny Watterson's Lane in Douglas. In other places this may be in the form of a natural interruption such as Groudle Glen/Molly Quirk's Glen providing a wide break in the form of a valley before the land rises up again into Lonan towards Baldrine and Laxey. Elsewhere, a more gentle graduation can be found, such as where the busy junction at St Ninian's with its urban feel gives way to semi-detached and detached housing, mature gardens, morphing into trees and fields as one travels along Ballanard Road.

As pressure on settlements increases and new development at the edges is increasingly justified, the aim will always be to soften the impact of the divide between urban and rural and to prevent unnecessary encroachment into the countryside.

Implementing the Strategic Plan

This Chapter of the Area Plan for the East sets out locally-applicable means for implementing the policies set out in the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016. In that Strategic Plan, we find the Environment Policies.

Environment Policy 1 states:

The countryside and its ecology will be protected for its own sake. For the purposes of this policy, the countryside comprises all land which is outside the settlements defined in Appendix 3 at A.3.6 or which is not designated for future development on an Area Plan. Development which would adversely affect the countryside will not be permitted unless there is an over-riding national need in land use planning terms which outweighs the requirement to protect these areas and for which there is no reasonable and acceptable alternative.

Maintaining the purpose of this Area Plan as a means of implementation, there is some further direction to be found in the Strategic Plan, at paragraph 7.2.1:

'Whilst landscape and coastal change is inevitable, and in some cases desirable, the emphasis must be on the appropriateness of this change and the balance or equity between the needs of conservation and those of development. The primary goal must therefore be to respect, maintain and enhance the natural and cultural environment including nature conservation and landscape and coastal quality, and ensure its protection from inappropriate development.'

Given the comprehensive nature of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan's Environmental Policies, only a small number of additional Proposals and Recommendations are necessary.

In order to produce an implementable Area Plan for the East it is necessary to recognise those statutory designations and strategies which whilst having an Island-wide scope are highly relevant to the protection of environments within the Plan Area. An example is the UNESCO Biosphere status afforded to the Isle of Man. Island-level strategies identify cross-border issues and take account of the cumulative impacts of human engagement with nature.

Area Plan Objectives

1. To protect, conserve and enhance the natural and cultural environment of the plan area and promote biodiversity.
2. To improve the function, usability and provision of our green infrastructure and public spaces by providing a network of green spaces and features which are connected and where possible, accessible to the public.
3. To manage and improve flood risk and improve drainage conditions.
4. To support the working countryside and its custodians in maintaining a sustainable rural economy.

Area Plan Desired Outcomes

1. Where approved, development will be ecologically sustainable and designed to protect and where possible enhance biodiversity as well as mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.
2. The Green Infrastructure network will be established and fostered, connecting people with nature in a way that achieves the best shared outcomes for the urban and natural environment.
3. Statutory and non-statutory designations will continue to provide protection to the most important and most vulnerable cultural assets, habitats and environments in the plan area.
4. Beyond the towns and villages, the area as a whole will retain its landscape setting including its important visual interaction with the central uplands, central valley, coast and marine environment.