Looe Neighbourhood Plan

Looe Local Landscape Character Assessment

In order to understand how the landscape around the medieval town of Looe could accommodate future housing growth, Looe Town Council commissioned Cornwall Council’s Public Space Team in August 2016 to undertake a landscape capacity assessment of the settlement’s edge.

Stage 1 was to divide up our NDP area into ‘landscape types’ (areas of land which have the same character), which guided the identification of land parcels around the settlement edge. 

In Stage 2 These land parcels are then assessed using an objective methodology to determine the landscape capacity of each to accept change. This report presents a summary of the findings as well as the detailed field assessment record for each land parcel accompanied by maps and photographs.

The findings of this assessment were used to aid the understanding the sensitivity of the character of the settlement’s edge, how future change would be viewed and by whom, and the value placed on the landscape both nationally and locally. This detail then informed the Neighbourhood Plan environmental policies, and decisions relating to the siting of future development to conserve and enhance the character of the town.

Undertaking this assessment is in line with national and local planning policy,and provided a key part of the detailed evidence base for the Looe NDP.

The full LLCA can be downloaded by clicking on the following link. Beware the file is very large and may take some time to download on a slow connection.