PLANNING POLICIES AND DEVELOPMENT CONTROL IN THE SUSSEX DOWNS AONB
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Local planning authorities in England and Wales are responsible for the care and administration of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). Since 1956 thirty three AONBs have been designated, including some of the best known parts of the countryside such as the Cotswolds and Chilterns, the Cornish coast and Gower peninsula. 1 The statutory purpose of AONB designation is to preserve and enhance natural beauty, but there are no special planning arrangements for AONBs as there are for their counterparts, the national parks. This means that 'preservation' is generally advanced through the ordinary development control process and 'enhancement' through the use of grant aid for such work as tree planting and the reclamation of eyesores and dereliction. In spite of the fact that AONBs now cover nearly 10 per cent of England and Wales there has been virtually no monitoring of their success or failure, although it has been claimed that the designation has enabled substantial new developments to be steered away from sensitive areas of countryside.2 This is probably true, but ultimately it may be the gradual accretion of minor developments that will make more impact on the beauty of these areas than a few major schemes would have done. In 1978 the Countryside Commission instituted a major reappraisal of AONBs. To this end a Discussion Paper3 was produced to which organisations and individuals were invited to respond. In addition the Commission appointed Mr K. S. Himsworth to undertake a study of the effectiveness or otherwise of the designation. His report is expected to be published in 1980/81. The Commission's work will not, however, be sufficiently detailed to include analysis of the day-to-day workings of development control in AONBs and whether designation has had any effect on planning applications received or decisions reached. This paper attempts to throw some light on this topic by outlining the results of a study in East Sussex of the relationship between development control and strategic planning, as revealed through an analysis of planning application data. The study area included part of the Sussex Downs AONB and in this way was similar to some earlier research undertaken by Blacksell and Gilg in East Devon.4 The paper ends with a comparison of the findings from East Sussex and East Devon which tend towards somewhat different conclusions.
[1] Margaret A. Anderson. The proposed High Weald Area of outstanding natural beauty : the use of landscape appraisal in the definition of its boundaries , 1981 .
[2] Richard Barras,et al. The Analysis in English Structure Plans , 1979 .
[3] M. Blacksell,et al. Planning control in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , 1977 .
[4] A. W. Rogers,et al. The Density-size Rule , 1974 .
[5] D. Mandelker. Green belts and urban growth : English town and country planning in action , 1962 .