Weather disruption
Winter weather is causing disruption to services in some parts of the county. Find out what services may be affected in your area.
Winter weather is causing disruption to services in some parts of the county. Find out what services may be affected in your area.
The Heath/Farmland landscape type is found largely on the fringes of the wider ‘Poole Basin’, an extensive area of former heathland on acidic and impoverished soils.
The Heath/Farmland Mosaic type is a transitional area between the chalk landscapes, river valleys and other heathland landscape types. It is generally a flat mixed farmed area interspersed with a mosaic of heathland and scrub which all combine to create a patchwork landscape. The farmed landscape does include some intensive estate managed farmland where the medium sized fields have dense hedges and some important hedgerow trees and small copses. There are some reasonably expansive islands of open heathland such as at Winfrith Heath and Tadnoll Nature reserve as well as smaller fragmented pockets across the area. It is impacted on by transport corridors, mineral extraction, other urban developments, such as recreational /leisure/retail centres and urban fringe land uses which all fragment the area creating a disjointed perception particularly in the east of the county where the urban edges abut the landscape. Stand alone settlements vary from picturesque villages such as West Knighton to ‘growth’ villages such Crossways. There are a number of important elevated areas such as at Dudsbury Hill and Whitcombe Hill, which form key local landscape features. The plantations and tree belts across the area also form key features and do help to soften urban edges and uses in places. The scale and prominence of Winfrith Technology Centre near Wool creates a significant visual impact across a wide area.
The overall management objective for the Heath/Farmland Landscape Type should be to reduce heathland fragmentation, control and enhance urban fringe uses and hard edges, manage and enhance al existing tree belts and promote informal recreation.