Forthbank Wind Energy Development - Partnerships for Renewables

Forthbank Wind Energy Development
Other Features
Experience
Internal/External
visibility
Scale
Diversity
Visual detractors
Designations
Key Landscape
Issues
LCA Sensitivity
and on the edges of the floodplain. The colliery village of Fallin is now a sizeable settlement
close to the river with a prominent bing with a wooded fringe.
The A907 Stirling-Dunfermline trunk route bisects the unit, connecting with the A91 and a
network of secondary routes serving the urban areas.
The parallel routes of the A84 and A811 trunk roads run along the northern and southern
perimeters of the valley floor, blending with the backdrop of adjacent higher ground.
The valley is notable for its lack of woodland.
Flatness, accentuated by predominantly open agricultural land cover, and consequent
dramatic contrast with hills to north and south.
The extent of the valley prevents any real feeling of enclosure, instead permitting panoramic
views of the surroundings. Panoramic views across open, large scale, simple, horizontal,
busy landscape with varied textures and colours, regular, planned and organised patterns.
LARGE
The degree of visual diversity is modest, relating primarily to features of the built
environment, and variation in arable cropping.
Views locally dominated by power stations and stacks, flues, flares, buildings and clutter of
large scale industrial installations. Prominent are major power lines originating from
Longannet and Kincardine power stations immediately to the east of the area.
A very large group of bonded warehouses east of Tullibody (west of Alloa) form an important
feature.
Motorways and other noisy, heavily trafficked, trunk roads;
The Abbey Craig AGLV. Important as landscape setting of Stirling Castle and Wallace
Monument both for inward and outward views.
Threat to views into and out of Stirling and to its setting.
Built development expanding beyond urban limit on fringes of Stirling, Alloa, Clackmannan
etc.;
Loss of existing tree belts and hedgerows;
Agricultural change out of permanent grassland;
New or extended mineral workings and waste disposal/waste water treatment sites.
Highly sensitive to change due to openness, heritage significance, and large viewing
population.
The degree of man modification including power lines and built features within this locality
would reduce the sensitivity at local level.
Visual character is also very strongly influenced by the widespread evidence of human
settlement, built development, and intensive agricultural land-management.
Landscape Character Type: LOWLAND RIVER VALLEYS
Landscape Character Area: Falkirk/Denny Urban Fringe
Extent within the LCT extends to a 7-15km radius in a south direction within the study area. It stretches
study area
between the slopes of the Touch Hills and Denny Muir to the west and the floodplain of the
River Forth to the east.
Representative VP14 - Falkirk Wheel.
viewpoints
Wind energy
Installed/Approved: ASDA depot
developments
Key Characteristics/
Landform
Water
Land Cover/Use
Settlements/Roads
Other Features
Experience
Internal/External
visibility
A wide swathe of low, gently rolling land. To the north and south the ground rises gradually,
the broad valley basin being cupped by the fringes of the east Touch Hills and the
Slamannan Plateau.
The lower stretches of the River Carron and its major tributary, the Bonny Water, run
eastwards through the shallow, relatively flat open valley. The coils and meanders of the
river-courses are paralleled in their east-west route by the line of the Forth and Clyde Canal,
and the smaller stretch of the Union Canal.
A mixture of pasture and arable fields lies on the edges of settlement, often cut through by
roads, resulting in scattered patches of scrub and areas of waste ground.
This densely settled, industrialised area consists of a mix of new residential development,
business parks, and factories and other industries on the outskirts of the older centres of
Falkirk, Larbert, Bonnybridge, Longcroft, Denny and Dunipace. Sprawling across the valley,
the settlements create the effect of near-continuous development.
The close, often parallel, spacing of motorways, trunk roads, various minor roads, and
operational and dismantled railway lines combines to form a chaotic, busy transport network.
Throughout the agricultural parts of the landscape, several isolated areas of mature
deciduous woodland lie close to the rivers, and fragmented lines of beech and ash stretch
along roadsides and hedgerows.
The spreading western edge of Falkirk has engulfed surrounding farmland and settlements.
The visual attraction and interest of ancient, well-preserved Roman remains, large
farmsteads, thick belts of mature woodland, a concentration of watercourses, and fertile
farmland, have been swallowed up by development.
Within this inharmonious landscape, views are frequently blocked and diverted by the harsh
edges and physical division of road embankments, and often rambling industrial and
residential areas, giving way to filtered glimpses of the nearby hills and the neighbouring
November 2010 Chapter 9 Page 27
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