Why the countryside needs planning protection

Overview

The pressures the countryside is under, what a designation is, the difference between protecting a site for its science and an area for its landscape, and who decides in Northern Ireland.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Why is planning needed to protect the countryside?

   Model answer

   Because the countryside supplies benefits that the market on its own will not protect: food production, water catchment, wildlife habitat, carbon storage, landscape beauty, cultural heritage and space for recreation. Left unregulated, individual landowners and developers would take decisions that are profitable for them but damaging overall, because the loss of a hedgerow, a view or a habitat costs them nothing while the gain from development is theirs. Planning also resolves conflicts between competing users of the same land, and once countryside is built on the loss is effectively permanent.

2. 2

   What pressures is the countryside under that make protection necessary?

   Model answer

   Housing demand and urban sprawl spreading from the rural-urban fringe; counterurbanisation adding new estates and conversions to villages; out-of-town retail, business parks and warehousing seeking cheap edge-of-city land; road building and other infrastructure; mineral extraction and quarrying; wind farms, pylons and telecommunications masts; agricultural intensification with hedgerow removal, drainage and heavier chemical use; afforestation with conifer plantation; and visitor pressure at honeypot sites.

3. 3

   What is a designation, in the context of countryside protection?

   Model answer

   A legal status given to a defined area or site by a public body, which recognises its value and attaches specific rules to it. Designation sets out what the area is protected for, who is responsible for it, and what activities are restricted or require consent. Different designations protect different things and carry different strengths of control, from tightly protected small scientific sites to large landscapes where designation mainly guides planning decisions.

4. 4

   Distinguish between designating a site for its scientific interest and designating an area for its landscape beauty.

   Model answer

   A scientific designation protects a small, precisely bounded site because of the particular habitat, species, geology or landform it contains, and it controls the specific operations that would damage those features, so protection is deep but narrow. A landscape designation covers a large area because of its scenic quality and character as a whole, and it works mainly by influencing planning decisions and land management across the whole area, so protection is broad but generally less absolute for any individual field or building.

5. 5

   What does the planning system actually do to protect rural land?

   Model answer

   It requires planning permission for most new building and changes of use, so development can be refused or approved with conditions. It sets out policies in development plans that say what kinds of development are acceptable and where. It designates protected areas whose status becomes a material consideration when applications are decided. It can attach conditions on design, materials, scale, screening, access and landscaping. It can require environmental impact assessment for large schemes. And it provides enforcement powers where work is carried out without permission.

6. 6

   Who takes planning decisions in Northern Ireland?

   Model answer

   Since planning powers were transferred from central government in 2015, most day-to-day planning decisions are taken by the eleven district councils, each preparing a local development plan for its area and determining applications within it. The regional department retains responsibility for regional planning policy and for calling in applications of regional significance. Nature conservation designations are made separately by the environment department through its environment agency, not by the councils.

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