The local environment and landscape character of the housing development is determined primarily by the following contributing factors:
- Influence of gently undulating landform
- Local woodlands such as Marnel Dell
- Adjoining open countryside
- The existing housing development at Merton Rise
The existing landscape consists mostly of arable land and improved pasture.
However, there are habitats in the area of relatively greater value including woodland shelterbelts, Popley ponds, calcareous grassland and fairly extensive hawthorn hedgerow habitats. The retained hedgerows on the boundaries of the development and existing shelter belts will be supplemented by extensive new landscape structure planting.
The landscape strategy includes the provision of open space, woodland and hedge belt planting and the reinforcement of existing hedges and shelterbelts. The key objectives of the strategy are:
- Identification of areas and features to be retained, enhanced, reinforced or removed.
- Measures to mitigate the adverse effects of development eg. screening, ground modelling, acoustic barriers, and planting of trees.
- Enhancing the overall landscape setting of the site.
- The creation of ‘a sense of place’ within the development areas.
- New wildlife linkages or corridors.
- Provision of new balancing ponds as attractive areas of open space.
It is proposed to retain as many existing trees and hedgerows as possible, especially those that are deemed to make a positive contribution to the appearance of the site or are required for nature conservation purposes. Reinforcement planting will also be required when necessary; there will be substantial belts of structured planting required along the northern boundaries of the site, in order to lessen the impact of the development and to provide an appropriate backdrop to the development area when viewed from the open countryside, public footpaths and the existing development measures, environment strategy and landscape proposals.
