Our Landscape Planning Director Kate Ahern and Associate Director Rebecca Knight recently spent an engaging day in Worcester discussing and debating techniques for assessing landscape sensitivity and capacity with Natural England (NE) staff.

NE has undertaken a strategic shift towards proactive work in respect of its planning advice to Local Planning Authorities. This means that NE’s Area Team planning support case work staff (and national Senior Advisers) require the skills to provide statutory advice in accordance with their role and responsibilities. LUC delivered a training day to equip Area Teams staff with the knowledge and skills required to review Landscape Sensitivity and Capacity Assessments presented in support of draft development plans and to provide advice (in the context of NE’s role as a statutory consultee) to the required standard.

Feedback from staff indicated that the day was a success:

“I think you definitely struck the right balance between setting the context but not overloading too much.”

“I found the training really helpful. I have had no experience of sensitivity and capacity assessments so initially it was quite a challenge for me but by the end of the afternoon I felt more comfortable with the topic. I found the case studies very helpful and as ever the exercises were very instructive.”