Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

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Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland

An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; Welsh: Ardal o Harddwch Naturiol Eithriadol; AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of their national importance by the relevant public body: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency respectively. In place of AONB, Scotland uses the similar national scenic area (NSA) designation. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty enjoy levels of protection from development similar to those of UK national parks, but unlike national parks the responsible bodies do not have their own planning powers. They also differ from national parks in their more limited opportunities for extensive outdoor recreation.^[1]

History

The idea for what would eventually become the AONB designation was first put forward by John Dower in his 1945 Report to the Government on National Parks in England and Wales. Dower suggested there was need for protection of certain naturally beautiful landscapes that were unsuitable as national parks owing to their small size and lack of wildness. Dower's recommendation for the designation of these "other amenity areas" was eventually embodied in the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 as the AONB designation.^[2]

Purpose

The purpose of an AONB designation is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the designated landscape.^[1]

There are two secondary aims: meeting the need for quiet enjoyment of the countryside and having regard for the interests of those who live and work there. To achieve these aims, AONBs rely on planning controls and practical countryside management. As they have the same landscape quality, AONBs may be compared to the national parks of England and Wales. National parks are well known in the UK; by contrast, there is evidence to indicate many residents in AONBs may be unaware of the status. However, the National Association of AONBs is working to increase awareness of AONBs in local communities,^[3] and, in 2014, successfully negotiated to have the boundaries of AONBs in England shown on Google Maps.^[4]

Statistical overview

View over Three Cliffs Bay in Gower AONB, the first to be designated

There are 46 AONBs in Britain (33 wholly in England, four wholly in Wales, one that straddles the Anglo-Welsh border and eight in Northern Ireland). The first AONB was designated in 1956 in the Gower Peninsula, South Wales. The most recently confirmed is the Tamar Valley AONB in 1995,^[5] although the existing Clwydian Range AONB, covering the Clwydian Range only, was extended in 2012 to form the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB, and the Strangford Lough and Lecale Coast AONBs were merged and redesignated as a single AONB in 2010.^[6]

AONBs vary greatly in terms of size, type and use of land, and whether they are partly or wholly open to the public. The smallest AONB is the Isles of Scilly, 16 km² (6.2 sq mi), and the largest is the Cotswolds,^[7] 2,038 km² (787 sq mi). The AONBs of England and Wales together cover around 18% of the countryside in the two countries. The AONBs of Northern Ireland together cover about 70% of Northern Ireland's coastline.^[2]

Legal status and organisation

AONBs in England and Wales were originally created under the same legislation as the national parks, the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Unlike AONBs, national parks have special legal powers to prevent unsympathetic development. AONBs in general remain the responsibility of their local authorities by means of special committees that include members appointed by the minister and by parishes, and only very limited statutory duties were imposed on local authorities within an AONB by the original 1949 Act. However, further regulation and protection of AONBs in England and Wales was added by the Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act 2000, under which new designations are now made,^[8][9] and the government stated in the National Planning Policy Framework (March 2012) that AONBs and national parks have equal status when it comes to planning decisions on landscape issues. Two of the AONBs (the Cotswolds and the Chilterns), which extend into a large number of local authority areas, have their own statutory bodies, known as conservation boards. The Glover Report in 2019 made various recommendations regarding the future of AONB's but as at 1 November 2020 the government has yet to respond to those recommendations. However, the Cotswolds Conservation Board announced in September that they were re-styling the area name and it is now known as the Cotswolds National Landscape.^[10]

All English and Welsh AONBs have a dedicated AONB officer and other staff. As required by the CRoW Act, each AONB has a management plan that sets out the characteristics and special qualities of the landscape and how they will be conserved and enhanced. The AONBs are collectively represented by the National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (NAAONB), an independent registered charity acting on behalf of AONBs and their partners, which uses the slogan "Landscapes for Life".^[11]

AONBs in Northern Ireland was designated originally under the Amenity Lands (NI) Act 1965; subsequently under the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands (NI) Order 1985.^[12]

Threats

Falmer Stadium under construction in 2010 in the former Sussex Downs AONB

There are growing concerns among environmental and countryside groups that AONB status is increasingly under threat from development. The Campaign to Protect Rural England said in July 2006 that many AONBs were under greater threat than ever before.^[13] Three particular AONBs were cited: the Dorset AONB threatened by a road plan, the threat of a football stadium in the Sussex Downs AONB, and, larger than any other, a £1 billion plan by Imperial College London to build thousands of houses and offices on hundreds of acres of AONB land on the Kent Downs at Wye.^[14] In September 2007 government approval was finally given for the development of a new football ground for Brighton and Hove Albion within the boundaries of the Sussex Downs AONB, after a fierce fight by conservationists. The subsequent development, known as Falmer Stadium, was officially opened in July 2011. The Weymouth Relief Road in Dorset was constructed between 2008 and 2011, after environmental groups lost a High Court challenge to prevent its construction.^[15]

Writing in 2006, Professor Adrian Phillips listed threats facing AONBs. He wrote that the apparent big threats were uncertainty over future support for land management, increasing development pressures, the impacts of globalization, and climate change. More subtle threats include creeping sub-urbanization and "horsiculture".^[2]

Celebration

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage wrote a poem "Fugitives", commissioned by the National Association of AONBs, which he read on Arnside Knott on 21 September 2019 to launch the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act.^[16][17][18]

List of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty

England

AONB	Photo	Established	Area	Local authorities
Arnside and Silverdale	(c) GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0	1972	75 km2 (29 sq mi)	Cumbria (South Lakeland), Lancashire (Lancaster)
Blackdown Hills		1991	370 km2 (140 sq mi)	Devon (East Devon, Mid Devon), Somerset (South Somerset, Somerset West and Taunton)
Cannock Chase		1958	68 km2 (26 sq mi)	Staffordshire (Cannock Chase, Lichfield)
Chichester Harbour	(c) Smb1001 at the English-language Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0	1964	37 km2 (14 sq mi)	Hampshire (Havant), West Sussex (Chichester)
Chiltern Hills		1965	833 km2 (322 sq mi)	Buckinghamshire, Central Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire (Dacorum, North Hertfordshire, Three Rivers), Luton, Oxfordshire (South Oxfordshire)
Cornwall		1959	958 km2 (370 sq mi)	Cornwall
Cotswolds		1966	2,038 km2 (787 sq mi)	Bath and North East Somerset, Gloucestershire (Cheltenham, Cotswold, Stroud, Tewkesbury), Oxfordshire (Cherwell, West Oxfordshire), South Gloucestershire, Warwickshire (Stratford-on-Avon), Wiltshire, Worcestershire (Wychavon)
Cranborne Chase and the West Wiltshire Downs		1981	983 km2 (380 sq mi)	Dorset, Hampshire (New Forest), Somerset (Mendip, South Somerset), Wiltshire
Dedham Vale		1970	90 km2 (35 sq mi)	Essex (Colchester, Tendring), Suffolk (Babergh)
Dorset		1959	1,129 km2 (436 sq mi)	Dorset
East Devon	(c) Tad102 at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5	1963	268 km2 (103 sq mi)	Devon (East Devon)
Forest of Bowland	(c) Ian Hargreaves, CC BY-SA 2.0	1964	803 km2 (310 sq mi)	Lancashire (Lancaster, Pendle, Ribble Valley, Wyre), North Yorkshire (Craven)
High Weald		1983	1,460 km2 (560 sq mi)	East Sussex (Hastings, Rother, Wealden), Kent (Ashford, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Malling, Tunbridge Wells), Surrey (Tandridge), West Sussex (Crawley, Horsham, Mid Sussex)
Howardian Hills	(c) Phil Catterall, CC BY-SA 2.0	1987	204 km2 (79 sq mi)	North Yorkshire (Hambleton, Ryedale)
Isle of Wight		1963	189 km2 (73 sq mi)	Isle of Wight
Isles of Scilly		1975	16 km2 (6.2 sq mi)	Isles of Scilly
Kent Downs		1968	878 km2 (339 sq mi)	Greater London (Bromley), Kent (Ashford, Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone & Hythe, Gravesham, Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Swale, Tonbridge and Malling), Medway
Lincolnshire Wolds		1973	560 km2 (220 sq mi)	Lincolnshire (East Lindsey, West Lindsey), North East Lincolnshire
Malvern Hills	(c) Bob Embleton, CC BY-SA 2.0	1959	105 km2 (41 sq mi)	Gloucestershire (Forest of Dean), Herefordshire, Worcestershire (Malvern Hills)
Mendip Hills		1972	200 km2 (77 sq mi)	Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, Somerset (Mendip, Sedgemoor)
Nidderdale	(c) Matthew Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0	1994	603 km2 (233 sq mi)	North Yorkshire (Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire)
Norfolk Coast		1968	453 km2 (175 sq mi)	Norfolk (Great Yarmouth, King's Lynn and West Norfolk, North Norfolk)
North Devon Coast	(c) MHenbert at the English Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0	1959	171 km2 (66 sq mi)	Devon (North Devon, Torridge)
North Pennines		1988	1,983 km2 (766 sq mi)	County Durham, Cumbria (Carlisle, Eden), Northumberland, North Yorkshire (Richmondshire)
Northumberland Coast		1958	138 km2 (53 sq mi)	Northumberland
North Wessex Downs	(c) Phil Champion, CC BY-SA 2.0	1972	1,730 km2 (670 sq mi)	Hampshire (Basingstoke and Deane, Test Valley), Oxfordshire (South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse), Swindon, West Berkshire, Wiltshire
Quantock Hills	(c) Richard Baker, CC BY-SA 2.0	1956	98 km2 (38 sq mi)	Somerset (Sedgemoor, Somerset West and Taunton)
Shropshire Hills	(c) Sean the Spook at the English Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0	1958	802 km2 (310 sq mi)	Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin
Solway Coast		1964	115 km2 (44 sq mi)	Cumbria (Allerdale, Carlisle)
South Devon		1960	337 km2 (130 sq mi)	Devon (South Hams), Plymouth, Torbay
Suffolk Coast and Heaths	(c) Pete Chapman, CC BY-SA 2.0	1970	403 km2 (156 sq mi)	Suffolk (Babergh, East Suffolk)
Surrey Hills	(c) Ojw at the English-language Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0	1958	422 km2 (163 sq mi)	Surrey (Guildford, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Tandridge, Waverley)
Tamar Valley	(c) Tony Atkin, CC BY-SA 2.0	1995	190 km2 (73 sq mi)	Cornwall, Devon (South Hams, West Devon)
Wye Valley (partly in Wales)	(c) Heinz-Josef Lücking, CC BY-SA 3.0 de	1971	326 km2 (126 sq mi)	Gloucestershire (Forest of Dean), Herefordshire, Wales: Monmouthshire
Total			19,035 km2 (7,349 sq mi)

Former Areas

The establishment of the New Forest National Park in 2005 meant the subsumption of South Hampshire Coast AONB into it. East Hampshire and Sussex Downs AONBs were replaced in 2010 by the South Downs National Park.

Wales

AONB / AHNE	Photo	Established	Area	Local authorities
Anglesey (Ynys Môn)	(c) Nigel Mykura, CC BY-SA 2.0	1967	221 km2 (85 sq mi)	Anglesey
Clwydian Range and Dee Valley (Bryniau Clwyd a Dyffryn Dyfrdwy)	(c) Nabokov at the English-language Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0	1985	389 km2 (150 sq mi)	Denbighshire, Flintshire, Wrexham
Gower (Gŵyr)	(c) CharlesC at English Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0	1956	188 km2 (73 sq mi)	Swansea
Llŷn		1956	155 km2 (60 sq mi)	Gwynedd
Wye Valley (Dyffryn Gwy) (partly in England)	(c) Roy Parkhouse, CC BY-SA 2.0	1971	326 km2 (126 sq mi)	Monmouthshire, England: Gloucestershire, Herefordshire

Northern Ireland

AONB	Photo	Established	Area	Local authorities
Antrim Coast and Glens		1989	724 km2 (280 sq mi)	Causeway Coast and Glens, Mid and East Antrim
Binevenagh		1966[a]	138 km2 (53 sq mi)	Causeway Coast and Glens
Causeway Coast		1989	42 km2 (16 sq mi)	Causeway Coast and Glens
Lagan Valley		1965	39 km2 (15 sq mi)	Belfast, Lisburn and Castlereagh
Mourne Mountains		1986	570 km2 (220 sq mi)	Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, Newry, Mourne and Down
Ring of Gullion	(c) Ron Murray, CC BY-SA 2.0	1966[b]	154 km2 (59 sq mi)	Newry, Mourne and Down
Sperrins		1968	1,181 km2 (456 sq mi)	Causeway Coast and Glens, Derry and Strabane, Fermanagh and Omagh, Mid Ulster
Strangford and Lecale[6]		1967[c]	525 km2 (203 sq mi)	Ards and North Down, Newry, Mourne and Down

Notes

Proposed areas in England

The following are formal proposals for new AONBs submitted to Natural England:^[19]

• Cambs Ouse Valley
• Churnet Valley
• Forest of Dean
• Herefordshire Marches
• Northants Ironstone Uplands
• Yorkshire Wolds

The 2019 Landscape Review Report additionally favourably mentions proposals not listed in Natural England's list: from Sandstone Ridge and the Vale of Belvoir.^[20]

See also

• Conservation in the United Kingdom
• European Landscape Convention
• Landscape-scale conservation
• National parks of England and Wales
• National parks of Northern Ireland
• Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wales

References

External links

• National Association of AONBs website
• "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, registered charity no. 1158871". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
• "Guidance: Areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs): designation and management". gov.uk. Natural England.