Issue - meetings

Decision

RESOLVED

To endorse the Draft Norfolk Coast Landscape Management Plan (2025-2030)

Reason for the decision:

1. The publication of a Management Plan for the Norfolk Coast National Landscape every 5 years forms part of the statutory duty of the relevant authorities (of which NNDC is one) in managing the area.
2. This Plan will complement and support the Council’s Local Plan Planning policies

Cllr H Blathwayt, Portfolio Holder for Coast, introduced this item. He explained that the Council, along with other relevant authorities, had a statutory duty to publish a management plan for the conservation and enhancement of the designated landscape and this needed to be updated every 5 years. The current plan (2019 – 2024) had therefore been reviewed and was presented to members for approval. Cllr Blathwayt said that it aligned with the recommendation of the Local Plan and protected public access to amenity.

The Chair thanked the Senior Landscape Officer (CB) for her hard work in producing the document. He invited members to speak:

Cllr V Holliday said that she had some reservations about the landscape management plan. She felt the targets were not SMART but subjective and the monitoring of the targets was weak in some instances such as chalk streams. She referred to the State of the North Norfolk Coast Landscape report, which highlighted that there was a high percentage of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s) which were in poor condition and this should be looked at closely.

Cllr Blathwayt said that the targets were definitely SMART. Cllr Holliday replied that 19% of targets were SMART, the rest were subjective. She said that it was good that evidence had been collated but that members should be concerned that it showed that rivers were in poor condition and light pollution was on the increase. Cllr Blathwayt said that unfortunately, designated National Landscapes (previously Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty had limited powers and there was no statutory input into planning applications. Instead, its aims were achieved through public negotiation. In the future, the elected Mayor would have powers that could strengthen its remit and ensure it became a statutory consultee in planning applications in the future.

The Senior Landscape Officer said that production of a Landscape Management Plan every five years was a statutory duty and it fed into the Council’s Local Plan. Regarding the State of the Norfolk Coast Landscape report, she said that this was the first time that there had been hard evidence on the state of the landscape, previously there had been condition assessments but they had not been quantified in a factual way. It wasn’t perfect and there were some gaps but it was a good start and was based on evidence provided by partner bodies. Having more tangible statistics would make it easier to apply Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and this would be an effective way of highlighting areas, such as chalk streams, that needed attention.

It was proposed by Cllr H Blathwayt, seconded by Cllr A Varley and

RESOLVED

To endorse the Draft Norfolk Coast Landscape Management Plan (2025-2030)

Reason for the decision:

1. The publication of a Management Plan for the Norfolk Coast National Landscape every 5 years forms part of the statutory duty of the relevant authorities (of which NNDC is one) in managing the area.
2. This Plan will complement and support the Council’s Local Plan Planning policies