Integrated Welsh Planning Expertise
Unlike England’s separated BNG metric approach, Welsh planning requires integrated assessment across three overlapping frameworks: natural landscape character (LVIA), cultural heritage significance (setting assessment), and ecological resilience (Net Benefit for Biodiversity).
Most practices specialize in one. Some can do two. Few provide coordinated evidence satisfying all three simultaneously — which is what Welsh protected landscape projects demand.
The Challenge
Projects in Eryri National Park, Llŷn National Landscape, and heritage-sensitive contexts don’t just face LVIA requirements. They face triple scrutiny :
Natural Landscape Character
Section 62 statutory duty in National Parks and AONBs requiring landscape impact assessment against special landscape qualities, valued characteristics, and sense of place.
Cultural Heritage Significance
Setting assessment for Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas, Registered Historic Parks & Gardens, Scheduled Monuments, and Non-Designated Heritage Assets under Historic Environment Service guidance.
Ecological Resilience
Mandatory Net Benefit for Biodiversity under Planning Policy Wales Edition 12, assessed through the qualitative DECCA framework (Diversity, Extent, Condition, Connectivity, Aspects of Resilience). Green Infrastructure Statements required for all applications.
The Problem with Separated Consultancy
Many developers appoint three separate consultants:
Result? Three disconnected reports that planning officers must reconcile. Mitigation strategies that conflict. LVIA screening that blocks habitat connectivity. Heritage-led layouts that ignore ecological corridors. Biodiversity enhancement retrofitted into fixed designs.
Planning officers expect integrated evidence. They’re assessing whether your project respects landscape character AND cultural heritage AND ecosystem resilience simultaneously.
Our Integrated Approach
We don’t assess these frameworks separately and staple the reports together. We integrate them from project inception:
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LVIA mitigation enhances biodiversity — Native hedgerow screening creates habitat corridors, not just visual barriers
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Heritage-sensitive design incorporates ecological enhancement — Historic field pattern restoration using native species, dry stone walls with bat roosting features
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NBB strategies respect landscape character and heritage context — Habitat creation informed by historic landscape character assessment
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Green Infrastructure Statements demonstrate alignment — Single narrative showing how landscape, heritage, and biodiversity objectives reinforce each other
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Coordinated evidence satisfies multiple consultees — Natural Resources Wales, Cadw, and planning officers receive integrated, consistent assessment
Why Integration Matters
Early engagement ensures the three frameworks shape design from inception, not compete at planning stage:
This integrated approach is what Welsh LPAs expect. It’s what your project needs.
Welsh protected landscape planning is uniquely complex because projects face three overlapping frameworks. We’re uniquely qualified because we integrate all three.
Most practices do one. Some do two. We integrate all three — because that’s what Welsh protected landscape projects demand.
