Blot on the Landscape? Not really, says Council

by EWAN LAMB

The construction of roads, pavements, street lighting and other infrastructure to facilitate the development of hundreds of houses on a beautiful Borders country estate will have a "negligible to neutral" impact on the wider landscape, according to an assessment prepared for the local authority.

Scottish Borders Council is currently asking its own planning department for permission to kick start their controversial proposals at Lowood, the estate purchased by SBC for around £11 million four years ago. Opponents say the multi-million pound project to extend Tweedbank village is economically unviable, and represents a threat to the local environment.

As part of the planning process the local authority has submitted a so-called Landscape and Visual Appraisal (LVA) although officers claim there is no requirement for an Environmental Impact Assessment because of the restricted size of the area to be used for the first phase of earthworks and roadworks.

The LVA, now available on the planning department's website, seeks to identify the effects of construction work on the Lowood estate.

The 22-page document explains: " The arrangement of woodland belts, trees and meadows framing views of distant hills with glimpses through the open pasture to pond and river together create a tranquil, harmonious and picturesque ‘rural’ landscape with a strong sense of enclosure.  

"The proposed development would introduce areas of new hard construction into this previously undeveloped landscape, providing road infrastructure for future mixed use development within the estate.  Footpath and road networks will connect the estate physically to Tweedbank commercial area, the railway station and Tweedbank settlement immediately to the south.  Greater visual connection will be created through the southern point of access in the boundary wall reducing the sense of enclosure to some extent."

It is claimed that in general due to the levels of containment and landform the site has a relatively limited 'visual envelope' both locally and from a distance.  The greatest potential visibility will be in close proximity to the site within the parkland itself, adjacent to the site entrance and for a short distance from across the River Tweed to the north east. 

The assessment considered the likely impact of development from a number of viewpoints on the estate itself and in the surrounding area. In a number of cases the effects are recorded as negligible.

However, when it came to viewpoint number four - close to Lowood driveway entrance - the impact was judged in the following way: " The development will be in a large part of the view, seen in close association with the existing estate drive introducing a ‘developed’ appearance to the landscape and having a high negative effect on the quality and tranquillity of the parkland landscape and this attractive approach.  

"Once operational the new route will introduce vehicular traffic on a regular basis.  The site will become the focus of attention, negatively impacting on the sense of concealment and surprise as the view opens out into the estate at this location and the perception of a harmonious picturesque landscape will be reduced."

According to the LVA the overall the scale of visual effect on viewpoint four could be judged as high with an increase in effects at night and in low light levels when car headlights and street lights are switched on.  Although hedgerow and tree planting will reduce the visual effects a little the overall scale of visual effect would be likely to remain high. 

 Under a heading Landscape Resource, the report says: "The landscape is assessed to have a high susceptibility to the kind of change proposed as the development is uncharacteristic of the baseline situation.  However the changes are not of a scale or nature that would cause notable impact on landscape resources on a regional or national scale and although the development would fundamentally change the appearance and nature of the site it would not cause a notable change in the wider landscape character of the study area.

"Overall the proposal would have a medium degree of effect on the character at the local scales and a negligible to neutral effect on the wider landscape character."

The document includes a comprehensive list of mitigating measures aimed at lessening the overall impact of development.

These are:

•             Sweeping nature of road in the views through the parkland, reflecting the organic nature of the parkland character and avoiding the mature parkland trees wherever possible.

•             Positioning of the proposed road against the wooded backdrop to the rear of views, away from the river Tweed and Borders Abbey Way to limit dominance of the road from sensitive viewpoints.

•             ‘Low key’ road design reflecting the existing estate road character and minimising prominence in views by avoiding a heavily engineered approach; using minimum road width; limiting use of road kerbs to site entrance only and creating ‘soft’ road edges of grass verges.

•             Protection of the historic containment features of woodland belts and the stonewall boundary feature as much as possible to retain the limited visual envelope of and the enclosed character of the parkland.

•             Retention of the historic driveway to Lowood house providing a safe, attractive and more ‘tranquil’ pedestrian and cycle route through the parkland separated from traffic with safe access to the new road link.

•             Hedge planting to screen pedestrians and cyclists from noise and air pollution and to reduce visual intrusion of the road development from views to the north.

•             Retention of individual mature parkland trees wherever possible and new plantings of individual/small groups of parkland trees to enhance the setting and provide successional planting within the designed landscape.

•             New planting of native hedgerow along the east and northern edge of the route

•             To soften the impact of the road in views, reduce traffic dominance and provide an element of separation between the more ‘developed’ new road and the existing ‘rural’ estate road.

•             New areas of verge and wildflower meadow mix associated with the road embankments, swales and disturbed ground to minimise visual impact and heavy engineering and provide nature based solutions to drainage.

•             New areas of predominantly native shrub, perennial planting and wildflower grass areas associated with embankments water bodies and swales to improve biodiversity and integration of the proposals into the landscape.