A Study of Landscape Sensitivities and Constraints to Wind

Key CharacteristicsSensitivities• Ancient woodlands and parklands are distinctivehistoric features.Prominent Built Structures• Rail and road corridors often follow the valley routewith smaller roads and lanes climbing the valley sidesperpendicular to the river course.• Where they cross the river valley overhead power linesand pylons are highly visible.• Mills and churches are prominent built features.• Kennet and Avon Canal and associated builtstructures is a dominant feature in 7A: Kennet Valley.Skyline• The steeply rising slopes limit long vistas.• Strong ‘empty’ downland skyline in view from the rivervalleys.• Pylons in some area form prominent features on theskyline.Internal Views• Within the valleys views are constrained by the risingslopes and land cover elements. Short, framed localviews frequently encompass attractive features suchas parkland, grazed wet meadows, vernacularsettlement, mills etc.Views and Connections with Adjacent Landscapes• Valley sides are predominantly formed by the OpenDownland, Downland with Woodland and WoodedPlateau landscape types so although there is visualconnection into this landscape type, views areconstrained to the immediate (often empty) ridgelinesof the downland slopes.• There is a more subtle transition with the LowlandMosaic in the lower reaches of the Kennet, Lambournand Pang.Sensitivities: There is the potential for an uncomfortable visual relationship should a turbinebe located close to pylons (cluttering due to different function and form). The mills andchurches are prominent built features and their site and setting is sensitive and should beconserved.Sensitivities: Skylines largely relate to the adjacent downland landscapes, which form therising slopes of the valleys – these are form a strong enclosing feature and are thereforeparticularly sensitive to intrusion of large scale built features, which would break the strongridgeline and would be visually dominant and overpowering in views from the small scalevalleys.Sensitivities: In the context of the local, framed views that can be obtained within the rivervalleys any form of tall development has the potential to be very dominant.Sensitivities: Long views out are limited by the immediate downland slopes and views into thevalley are similarly constrained by topography. As noted above, the ‘empty’ ridgelines ofthe downland slopes that enclose the valleys are important providing enclosures andcontainment and are extremely sensitive to turbine development.North Wessex Downs AONB: Landscape Sensitivities110River Valleysand Constraints to Wind Turbine Development