Doncaster Council

Draft Supplementary Planning Guidance

The Aim of This Guidance
The purpose is to provide general landscape design guidance for planning applicants in Doncaster. The overall aim is to achieve a pleasant environment for local people to live and work in.

Why and When Should a Landscape Scheme be Submitted?
Quality landscape should form an integral part of any development and should be an on-going asset to the local community. It should be appropriate and sympathetic to its setting, and maximise opportunities for wildlife and ecology. Typical landscape issues for the applicant to consider include:

• Protection of valuable trees and landscape features
• Site setting, access and layout
• Tree and shrub planting
• Impact on neighbouring properties and screening
• Reinstatement of the site after works
• Paving, walling and fencing materials                       

If you require any further assistance please contact the Environmental Planning Group-Landscape. 

Landscape Character and Capacity Study

In 1994 DTA Environment and Ashmead Price carried out a landscape assessment of Doncaster with the main objectives of classifying the Borough into areas of similar character and identifying Areas of Special Landscape Value (ASLV), which should be protected to preserve their high quality and distinctiveness. A recent landscape character and capacity study was commissioned in 2006 to update this research and reflect changes in the landscape.

Aims of the study

Unlike the previous study, the Landscape Character and Capacity Study assesses the capacity of the landscape to accommodate different types of development including housing, strategic employment, minerals and waste, large-scale forestry and renewable energy. It forms part of the evidence base for the Local Development Framework (LDF) and develops clearly defined criteria to help assess the impact of proposed development on the landscape. It will be used in the determination of current and future planning applications. Part 3 of the document provides general landscape design principles for development types.

Due to the size of the document it has been divided into separate sections, these can be downloaded from the LDF evidence base reference list.

Planning Guidance - Doncaster Landscape Character Types: Tree and Shrub Planting

This lists locally characteristic trees and shrubs for the different Landscape Types in Doncaster, which are: Coalfields Farmlands; Coalfields River Corridor; Limestone Plateau; Limestone Corridor; Settled Clay Farmlands; Peat Moorlands; River Valley Carrlands; Limestone River Valleys; Sandland Heaths and Farmland.

The native species listed are adapted to the environmental conditions in these areas and support far greater diversity of associated plants and animals than non-indigenous species.

The planning authority has a duty to support local biodiversity and therefore it encourages the planting of these trees and shrubs wherever appropriate

• Planning Guidance - Tree and Shrub Planting (600Kb)