Environment

The wonderful Environment in which the four parishes are so fortunate to be situated is
very widely appreciated by parishioners as an important aspect of their lives. Its protection
and enhancement are dealt with here under the following headings:

RETAINING THE PARISH'S ESSENTIAL CHARACTER
ENVIRONMENTAL HOUSEKEEPING RIGHTS OF WAY
WASTE AND RE-CYCLING
RETAINING THE PARISH'S ESSENTIAL CHARACTER

Background/Evidence

80-90% of Respondents "valued" or "valued highly" the character of the Parish - in terms
of its Natural Environment (i.e. countryside), Built Environment (villages, hamlets etc)
and Social Environment (rural way of life and community spirit). Their additional
comments reinforced the importance of this to them and they clearly felt very strongly that
the essential character of the Parish should be retained.

Achieving this objective presents a complex problem involving a wide variety of
environmental facets, external factors and possible future developments. Changes during
the next 10 years are inevitable and some may well bring worthwhile benefits but others
may pose serious threats to the Created on 9/9/2007 4:32:00 PMPP OCR Page 8character
of the Parish and may need to be resisted.

A further complication is that many other organisations are already involved in
environmental protection activities covering the Parish area and there are in any case
clearly limits to how much the Parish itself can hope to achieve by its own actions. On the
other hand the Parish should be able to make an important contribution by co-operating
with and influencing other organisations concerned.

If the Parish is to retain its essential character it should:
1. In consultation with the relevant third party organisations make a more detailed study of
just what are the factors and issues involved in each of the three valued Environments
(Natural, Built and Social).
2. Based on this, develop a long-term Parish environmental strategy and policies which
should: a. Identify specific environmental tasks that could be undertaken by the Parish
itself, b. Be taken into account by the PC in all its planning and decision-taking (i.e. in
the current
jargon, be used as a basis for "environmental proofing"), t c. Be used to help to
strengthen the Parish's external influence with, for example, the planning authorities or
possible sources of funding.
3. Continue thereafter to monitor internal and external developments and to update the
strategy and policies as necessary.
4. Maintain links and co-operation with organisations such as the AONB team, National
Trust, SSDC etc.

Objective

To ensure that while worthwhile change is in general welcomed, the valued and distinctive
characteristics of the Parish's Natural, Built and Social Environments are protected and
where possible enhanced.