Consultation on the draft Core Strategy has highlighted the concerns of local communities regarding the impact of development at Blandford and Shaftesbury on the landscape. With this in mind the Council employed, a senior landscape officer at Dorset County Council (DCC) to undertake a landscape impact assessment of the potential housing sites adjoining Blandford and Shaftesbury, as identified in the District Council's Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA).
Each site was assessed using the same methodology, which was agreed in discussion with both AONB teams. The main outputs from the assessment are a series of assessment sheets.
The assessment is essentially a survey where a number of different sites have been examined against the same criteria. It does not seek to rank the sites according to their landscape value or, in itself, make judgements about the suitability of sites for development. However, it does provide consistent data that will help to inform such judgements.
Sites assessed:
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Blandford A354 A350
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Blandford Blandford St Mary
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Blandford Deer Park Stables
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Blandford Junction A354-B3082
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Blandford Land to North East Blandford
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Blandford Lower Bryanston Farm
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Blandford Milldown Local Nature Reserve
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Blandford North East of Blandford
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Blandford West and East of Sunrise Business Park
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Shaftesbury Church Farm
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Shaftesbury East of Lower Blandford Road
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Shaftesbury East of New Road
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Shaftesbury Land west of A350 opp Wincombe Business Park
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Shaftesbury Site surrounding Blackmore Vale Dairy
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Shaftesbury Sites St James
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Shaftesbury south of New Road
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Shaftesbury south of Wincombe Business Park
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Shaftesbury South of Wincombe Lane
- Landscape Impact Assessment: Shaftesbury Woollands Lane