Dudley Council

Part One: Spatial Strategy and Policies (Regulation 19)

Ends on 29 November 2024 (8 days remaining)

Registered Parks and Gardens (RPG's) and Designed Landscapes of High Historic Value (DLHHV)

14.30. Some areas of the borough retain landscape features that are the product of a formal design process with the intention of producing both a functional and aesthetically pleasing landscape. Such areas include Parks, gardens and cemeteries.

Registered Parks and Gardens

14.31. Nationally a Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest is maintained by Historic England to recognise the contribution to national heritage of the finest designed landscapes. Within the borough, there are two Registered Parks and Gardens:

  • The Leasowes – Grade 1 Registered Park and Garden. A "fermeornee" landscape laid out in 1740s and 1750s by William Shenstone which was a potent influence on the style of landscape gardening then and in the later 18th Century.
  • Priory Park – Grade II Registered Park and Garden. An early 20th Century public park developed as part of a town planning scheme by Edward Prentice Mawson from an existing early and mid-19th Century villa garden on the site of a medieval priory.

14.32. However, the borough-wide Historic Landscape Characterisation Survey (HLCS) and BCHLCS recognises that there are numerous other formally designed landscaped areas within Dudley Borough that make an important contribution to its character as a result of their design and historic associations which would not meet the criteria for inclusion on this national register. To ensure that the contribution of these areas to local character and distinctiveness is fully recognised in planning for the future of Dudley Borough, the most historically significant of these have been identified as Designed Landscapes of High Historic Value (DLHHV).

Policy DLP61 Registered Parks and Gardens and Designed Landscapes of High Historic Value (DLHHV) Comment

  1. The Council will resist any development or other works taking place which would harm the significance or be detrimental to the setting, character, quality and historic integrity of Registered Parks and Gardens at Leasowes Park and Priory Park and Designed Landscapes of High Historic Value including detailed design features and individual historic components, whether man-made or natural.
  2. The Registered Parks and Gardens at the Leasowes and Priory Park will be preserved and enhanced in order to protect and maintain their unique features and their significance.
Justification

14.33. Designed Landscapes of High Historic Value (DLHHV) are one of the Historic Environment Area Designations (HEADS) listed in Policy DLP55. They define areas of designed landscape of acknowledged importance and Policy DLP61 aims to ensure that where new development is proposed that its impact on the significance of the designed landscapes (whether designated or non-designated) have been fully considered.

Heritage Assets of Archaeological Interest, Scheduled Monuments and Archaeological Priority Areas (APA's)

14.34. Dudley's Historic Environment Record (HER) register's numerous Heritage Assets of archaeological interest (as defined by the NPPF Annex 2). In addition, there is also a much smaller number of Heritage Assets of archaeological interest that are already positively identified as important at the national level, and which have been formally designated as Scheduled Monuments (SMs) and these are subject to strict controls under national legislation. The NPPF advises that other currently non-designated assets of archaeological interest that are demonstrably of equivalent significance to scheduled monuments should also be considered.

14.35. In this context there are sites and areas throughout Dudley Borough recorded in Dudley Council's HER that have not yet been formally designated as a Scheduled Monument but have been identified through the Borough-wide Historic Characterisation Survey, and also in the HLC documents prepared for Brierley Hill, Dudley, Halesowen Stourbridge and the Glass Quarter and in the Black Country Historic Landscape Characterisation Study (2019), as having a high potential for the survival of archaeological remains of regional or national importance. These are considered to be "Archaeological Priority Areas" (APA) and have been previously identified and designated by the Council.

14.36. The Council will need to consider the preservation of all Heritage Assets of archaeological interest when assessing applications for new development. However, where a development proposal affects a Scheduled Monument or an Archaeological Priority Area, developers can, at the outset, assume that there will be a requirement for a full physical evaluation following desktop archaeological appraisal.

14.37. The Council considers it reasonable that throughout the Borough, adequate information as to the nature, quality and conditions of archaeological remains affected by development proposals should be provided by the applicant in order that the local planning authority may assess the archaeological impact of the proposals and identify requirements for archaeological preservation.

Policy DLP62 Heritage Assets of archaeological interest, Scheduled Monuments and Archaeological Priority Areas (APA) Comment

  1. For development proposals which:
    1. contain a Heritage Asset of archaeological interest
    2. are within an Archaeological Priority Area
    3. are in proximity to a Scheduled Monument
    4. are within any other sites and areas of known or potential archaeological significance that may be identified and included in the Dudley Council Historic Environment Record (HER) through the life of the plan and or identified in the Historic Characterisation Survey (HCS)
  2. The following will apply:
    1. a presumption against any development which would threaten the integrity, significance or prejudice the setting of Scheduled Monuments and non-scheduled sites of national importance.
    2. the Council will seek to ensure that archaeological remains of interest are preserved in situ and encourage landowners to enter into management agreements in this regard. Where this would be unreasonable, to ensure that provision is made for an appropriate level of archaeological investigation and recording of any buildings structure or buried deposit of interest prior to the commencement of development or, in some cases, prior to the determination of a planning application.
    3. as part of any planning application, applicants are required to provide adequate information to allow the full and proper consideration of the impact of the proposed development on archaeological remains through desk top archaeological appraisal and, as Dudley Council deems appropriate, subsequent physical site evaluation and building recording.
    4. any development proposal that is deemed to have a damaging impact upon significant archaeological remains, and where potentially negative impacts have been identified, is required to carry out an agreed schedule of suitable measures designed to mitigate such impact in order to preserve buildings, structures or buried deposits in situ.
Justification

14.38. Archaeological Priority Areas (APA's) are one of the Historic Environment Area Designations (HEADS) listed in Policy DLP55. They define areas of the borough as having high potential for the survival of archaeological remains of regional or national importance. Policy DLP62 aims to ensure that where new development is proposed that heritage assets of archaeological interest (whether designated or non-designated) have been fully considered.

Evidence
  • Black Country Historic Landscape Characterisation (2010)
  • Black Country Historic Landscape Characterisation Study (2019)
  • Borough-Wide Urban Historic Landscape Characterisation Study (2016/2023)
  • Historic Environment Supplementary Planning Document (2017)
  • Historic Landscape Characterisation for Brierley Hill, Dudley, Halesowen, Stourbridge and the Glass Quarter.
  • Historic Environment Record (HER)
  • National Design Guide
  • Historic England Good Practice Advice Notes (GPAs) and Historic England Advice Notes (HEANs)
Delivery
  • Historic Landscape Characterisation documents
  • Adopted Conservation Area Character Appraisals
  • Development Management process including Design and Access Statements and Statements of Heritage Significance
  • Supplementary Planning Documents
  • A regularly updated and maintained Historic Environment Record (HER).
Monitoring

Policy

Indicator

Target

DLP55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61 and 62

Proportion of planning permissions granted contrary to the recommendations of the Local Planning Authority Historic Environment Advisor

0%
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