Protecting and enhancing the natural environment and landscape

Protecting and enhancing the natural environment, including landscape and seascape, is a core planning principle of the SPPS, which recognises the region's distinctive and beautiful landscape. The protection and improvement of the landscape is not only important for visual amenity, as it also plays a critical role in the environmental quality and setting of the district, which helps to support the local economy, quality of life and the health and wellbeing of our residents and visitors. The LDP policy supports the policies set out in the SPPS and seeks to provide overall protection and, where appropriate, improvement of our landscape resource, including the varied landscapes throughout the city and its wider setting. Some areas are designated for particular landscape value and development proposals in these will be subject to particular scrutiny to ensure no significant detrimental impact. The LDP acknowledges this and confirms that all new development should ensure that there is no damage to our landscape resource. Where exceptional circumstances exist that supports development proposals that have potential impact on the landscape resource, adequate mitigation and compensatory measures must be agreed and put in place.