Landscape management services are a natural development of our planning and design work and we are often retained to oversee the continuing development and care of landscapes. Our services include the development of annual maintenance programmes and the preparation of management strategies and detailed management plans for existing site vegetation.
Sites are diverse encompassing the management of designed historic landscapes, designated landscapes of nature conservation value such as SSSI's, industrial sites in rural locations and urban landscapes. Projects often require the integration of ecological and/or historic landscape design issues with management interests and the sometimes conflicting needs of public use.
Gale Common case study The ash disposal hill at Gale Common has been our longest-running project. In the early 1960s the CEGB proposed to dispose of power station ash (PFA – pulverised fuel ash) by pumping ash slurry into bunded lagoons, the bunds being raised tier by tier to an eventual height of 50m. We were appointed to design the hill in conjunction with engineering consultants Rendel, Palmer and Tritton. The brief was to create a landform pleasing in the surrounding rather flat landscape. The modelling of the face, in conjunction with the engineering works, and the manipulation of shelter belts combine to give the hill sculptural form and visual interest. Inspiration for the new hill was drawn from the man-made terraces which are a common feature of hillside agriculture and defence throughout the world, and which in Britain were typified by the lynchets and hill-forts of chalk downland. The hill was granted planning approval in 1963 and is planned in three stages. Work on Stage 1, which commenced in 1967, will be completed during the next few years. Stage 2 is already underway and ultimately the scheme will cover an area of 303 hectares. |