Natural England

A Great Step Forward For England's Finest Landscapes - 13 June 2000

The new measures, announced by Environment Minister Michael Meacher today (13 June), will require local authorities to adopt management plans for their AONBs. Those plans should offer everyone with an interest in an AONB an opportunity to shape its successful management. That includes local authorities, landowners, the wider local community and the voluntary sector.

The new legislation will also enable conservation boards to be set up for the larger AONBs, which often cross several local authority boundaries. These conservation boards will bring together local authorities and other local and national experts to co-ordinate the production and implementation of management plans. 

In a response to a Parliamentary Question, Housing and Planning Minister Nick Raynsford has also confirmed that AONBs and national parks are equal in terms of their landscape qualities and should enjoy equivalent protection under the land use planning system.

Countryside Agency chairman Ewen Cameron said: "This announcement marks a real turning point for our AONBs. For too long they have been the Cinderella of our countryside and had to rely on the ability of local authorities to produce and implement management strategies and plans without legislative backing and adequate funding. 

"This new legislation will reinforce those efforts and encourage everyone involved to think more ambitiously about these important areas and the needs of their communities, and to plan confidently for the long term. mf


Mr Cameron said: "Conservation boards will give some of our larger AONBs the opportunity to be represented through a single body. That's good news for those AONBs. And it will provide local authorities with a more efficient means of joining forces to better manage some of our finest landscapes.

"The confirmation that AONBs should enjoy the same level of protection under the planning system as our national parks is also excellent news. It quashes the widely held assumption that we have a two tier system for protecting precious landscapes within England and complements very well the government's announcement of new AONB legislation."