here - Sandgate Parish Council

Sandgate’s Natural LandscapesHuman wellbeing is intimately connected with our natural environment. Evidence from the UK NationalEcosystem Assessment supports what many feel instinctively: regular opportunities to experience naturehave positive impacts on mental and physical health, learning and relationships between neighbours.Nature can benefit us at all stages in our lives. 7Sandgate is a community set in a natural landscape of outstanding beauty.The strongly evocative openness of the sea and coastline is, as the SandgateConservation Area Appraisal states, a priceless amenity, as demonstratedby the evident competition for buildings which look out upon it. This longcoastline and the wooded escarpments which run largely parallel to it haveshaped the layout of the settlement and the design of the buildings here forcenturies. These wooded hillsides are particularly vulnerable to developmentpressures given their dominant low density character and their attractivelocation and views afforded from such coastal settings. Although the beach,and sea, is perhaps more readily visible and visited, the wooded hillsides thatprovide the strong backdrop for the character and appearance of Sandgateare equally significant and their preservation and enhancement is at the heartof this Design Statement. Given the problems of land instability along theescarpments the existing woodlands also have a vital role, as promoted byDefra, the Forestry Commission and the Environment Agency, in reducingsurface water run-off and soil erosion.The valuable ‘lungs’ provided by the woodland north of Encombe, theUndercliff, the Corniches and Radnor Cliff, and of Enbrook Park also giveimportant green edges, backdrops and leisure opportunities for people in aparish in which there is almost no other planting. The woodland especially,having only low level management, allows natural ecology to take its coursewith little disturbance and consequent benefits for the biodiversity of thisarea. The value of these wooded escarpment areas was recognized in theSandgate Study conducted by Shepway District Council in 1975 “This area iscomparatively steep and was not developed by the military authorities. Beingin its natural state and overgrown with shrubs and bushes, it contributesstrongly to the amenity of the high slopes and should remain free ofdevelopment. Its use as open space would be appropriate” and in 2004 bythe Inspector into the Shepway District Local Plan Review, “I recognise that,particularly in hilly areas such as Sandgate, some areas of open space maybe of high public visual amenity value but access may be limited for somemembers of the community, such as elderly people, because of the steepslopes. It does not follow that the amenity value of such land would thus begiven a lesser weight: rather that in some areas it is the value of the land interms of visual amenity that is of most importance”.With regard to the Radnor Cliff escarpment the Conservation Area Appraisalemphasises “A vital component of The Radnor Cliff area’s character forexample is its dramatic hillside setting and planting. Views into or out of this7The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature presented to Parliament by the Secretary ofState for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, June 2011Opposite: Detail from a hand painted Map of Sandgate by Phillip Rutt, ARC Creative Design Ltd,shows part of Sandgate’s extensive natural landscape found on the Shorncliffe escarpment.42 SANDGATE DESIGN STATEMENT 2013