News

President of the Landscape Institute addresses the Groundwork Trust National Conference

29th June 2007

Nigel Thorne addressed the Groundwork Trust National Conference on 28th June. He outlined the Landscape Institute's vision and spoke about the relevance of the European Landscape Convention to our communities.

Here is the full text of the speech, "Big Ideas:Big Landscapes. How relevant is policy to local communities?".

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to address your National Conference. In my address I will tell you a little about the body I represent and establish why I think it is important to make a consideration of landscape central to policy development and implementation. I will examine the relevance of landscape policy to the quality of life and call for communities to demand high quality landscapes. I will introduce you to the European Landscape Convention and show why it is relevant to local communities with reference to the current proposals for reform of the planning system.

A few words about the Landscape Institute. Our vision is to create a thriving society and environment through inspirational places. We wish to build a professional community of landscape architects in the service of the public interest. We will protect, conserve and enhance the natural and built environment for the benefit of the public by promoting the arts and sciences of landscape architecture.

I understand that Groundwork supports communities in need, working with partners to help improve the quality of people’s lives, their prospects and potential and the places where they live, work and play. Your vision is of a society of sustainable communities which are vibrant, healthy and safe, which respect the local and global environment and where individuals and enterprise prosper. We share common ground.

I welcome your ECOREGEN initiative to reconnect people with the land around them; helping communities get the maximum benefit from land in their neighbourhood while ensuring that, as a society, we recognise our responsibilities to the environment.

And I welcome your ‘Playing it Naturally’ campaign. I agree that play environments have the power to fire our children's imagination, but many simply inhibit their mental and physical progress with sterile, risk-averse playgrounds. Let us bring natural play to neighbourhoods across the UK.

Landscapes are the context for, and a critical contributor to, everything we experience, whether for good or ill. When we consider strategies that might change our experiences or behaviour, it is essential that the landscape context is centre stage. Landscape, whether urban or rural, is part of the dynamic of change. When we think nowadays about the concerns of our age - obesity, social inclusion, climate change, energy generation, and the housing market – there is a direct link to the landscape context.

And landscape changes all the time. Natural England, English Heritage and DEFRA have monitored changes in the rural English landscape between 1998 and 2003 (‘Countryside Quality Counts - Tracking Change in the Character of the English Landscape, 1999-2003’). Of England’s 159 ‘Joint Character Areas’, 10% have been enhanced (the Cotswolds is cited); 20% have been neglected (an example is Kent) and 51% have been maintained (including the Lake District). But - 19% are diverging, with new characteristics emerging. Change is inevitable and necessary but there are opportunities to plan and manage that change. And we must help people take those opportunities.

Landscapes are not just physical places; they are cultural artefacts. They don’t just happen, so to create public policy without considering the landscape is to set oneself up for failure. The current White Paper ‘Planning for a Sustainable Future’ fails to establish a landscape policy. I will come back to this theme.

External spaces mean different things to different people and can even mean different things to the same person, depending on the time of day, the season of the year, or even their mood. There may be a sign saying ‘This is a playground’ but it does not necessarily mean that someone in or near that space thinks of it, or uses it, in that way. And the child playing in the playground will have different thoughts about what is going on in it to the person who erected the sign. People use their imaginations in public, external spaces in a way that is not possible indoors. Public space is often contested space, so our ability to put aside the potential for conflict and co-exist successfully in public space is a true test of social capital.

A recent report from CABE, ‘Living with risk: promoting better public space design’, reflects this notion. CABE showed that though groups perceive risk in different ways, public space design is with the worst-case scenario in mind rather than normal behaviour. But the more people use public space the safer it becomes, if only because informal surveillance establishes social norms.

Landscape must become a mainstream political concern, since it plays an important role in the well-being of people who are no longer prepared to tolerate the alteration of their surroundings by developments in which they have had no say. Landscape is the concern of all and lends itself to democratic treatment. Landscape is the link between the science of climate change and people’s emotional response to climate change.

Give people an active role in decision-making on landscape and they are more likely to identify with the areas and towns where they spend their working and leisure time. If they have more influence on their surroundings, they will be able to reinforce local and regional identity and distinctiveness - and this will bring rewards in terms of individual, social and cultural fulfilment. This may help to promote the sustainable development of the area concerned, as the quality of landscape has an important bearing on the success of economic and social initiatives, whether public or private.

Modern lifestyles mean that people are increasingly keen to preserve their heritage, both natural and cultural. Thanks to this growing social pressure, landscape is regaining prominence as a key component of environmental policies.

The White Paper ‘Planning for a Sustainable Future’, is an opportunity for the Government to harness landscape’s unifying role in social, economic and environmental development. But there is no landscape policy in the White Paper and I call on Government to rectify this omission.

The White Paper does set out a wide-ranging package of reforms and I welcome them, as far as they go. Of interest to this conference is the wish:
• To support sustainable economic development, alongside work to tackle climate change and cut carbon emissions and other environmental impacts from new economic development;
• To strengthen the role of local authorities as place-shapers; and
• To streamline the system to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of the planning system for all, with a holistic approach to community engagement across the range of a local authority’s functions.

The Government states that it is committed to ensuring that decision making is at as local a level as possible so that it can fully reflect local circumstances and needs. The call is for ‘places shaped by their communities where people are proud to live’.

So why is landscape missing from the reforms? Perhaps it is because Government thinks of landscape in terms of the beautiful, the grand and the wider countryside. Or perhaps it is because landscape is too often disregarded as part of the process of change and yet it is the starting point. I argue that landscape is the context for, and a critical contributor to, everything we experience. Landscape policies are critical to the success of planning reform. If the call ‘for places shaped by their communities where people are proud to live’ is to have any meaning then local communities must take control of their own landscapes and demand the best.

And how do we help local communities engage in landscape matters?

Let me introduce you to the European Landscape Convention. The European Landscape Convention is the first international agreement to address landscape issues, entering into force on the 1 March 2004. It was ratified by the UK in November 2006 and became binding on the 1 March 2007.

The Convention aims to ensure the proper protection, management and planning of landscapes across Europe and aims to bring all countries up to the standard of the best. The Convention covers all landscapes of whatever quality, whether rural or urban, built or natural.
Parties to the Convention undertake to:
• establish and implement recognised policies on landscape management, planning and protection;
• recognise landscapes in law as an essential component of people’s surroundings and introduce procedures for public participation in landscape policies;
• integrate landscape into agricultural, cultural, economic, environmental, social and spatial planning policies;
• undertake awareness raising, education and training, and the identification and evaluation of landscapes;
• introduce instruments to put landscape policies into effect; and
• co-operate on the landscape dimension of international policies, exchange experience and information internationally, and encourage trans-frontier cooperation.

This is a powerful Convention. The UK Government believes that it meets the requirements of the various articles of the European Landscape Convention and does not propose to make any changes to existing law, policies or practice. But the Government has recognised that there are areas where steps could be taken to enhance UK performance against the various Convention requirements. And that is where important opportunities lie for us.

It is worth repeating that the policies and measures mentioned in the convention must cover all the forms of landscape that countries possess, of whatever quality, whether rural or urban, built or natural. It therefore applies not only to outstanding landscapes but also to everyday and damaged landscapes. And the everyday and damaged landscapes are those that concern us today. We must test the reforms in the Rural White Paper against the obligations of the European Landscape Convention.

And we must fulfil our obligations under the convention. We must champion high quality landscapes for all circumstances. The Convention establishes a Landscape Award of the Council of Europe. The Landscape award is a distinction which may be conferred on local and regional authorities that have instituted a policy or measures to protect, manage and/or plan their landscape, which have proved lastingly effective and can thus serve as an example to other territorial authorities in Europe. The distinction may be also conferred on non-governmental organisations having made particularly remarkable contributions to landscape protection, management or planning. Let us help our local communities gain measures and landscapes worthy of such an award.

The European Landscape Convention holds out great hope, requiring us, as it does, to recognise the importance and value of landscapes and to reconcile commercial considerations with the right to well-being, health, aesthetics and beauty. Let us build upon this foundation to create a society of sustainable communities which are vibrant, healthy and safe, which respect the local and global environment and where individuals and enterprise prosper.

In recent weeks there has been a flurry of policy statements and reaffirmation of policy, all of which will have major impacts on landscapes, the environment, communities and social capital – eco-towns, the Planning White Paper, the Energy White Paper, the Waste Strategy. There are promises of greater devolution of powers to communities while critics claim that real local democracy is being undermined; or that community consultation is being over-emphasised at the expense of professional skill.

For landscape architects, the challenge is to redouble our efforts to show how the best landscapes replace ugliness with beauty. We must inspire communities to demand the best. Groundwork, with its long tradition of effective community engagement offering the chance for transformed environments to otherwise badly served groups, is playing a particularly important part in this.
People, place and the public realm are the core of landscape architecture with professionals working to provide the best possible environments for people to live and enjoy. In so doing our environment, lifestyle, society, the economy and more are directly affected by landscape architects. Landscape is the link between the science of climate change and people’s emotional response to climate change.

Thank you, I wish you a successful conference and a productive future.