UDP Part 1 - Strategic Overview - Conservation & Environment
Unitary Development Plan
Chapter 2 : Strategic Overview
Conservation and Environment
Key
| 2.39 | The Borough contains a wide variety of wildlife habitats which are not confined to the open countryside and further survey work is being undertaken to provide more systematic information. A graded system of Sites of Biological Importance (S.B.I.'s) has been established throughout the former County, and the Tameside area possesses around 640 acres of land designated for its conservation value. Within the Borough there were, at May 1995, three Sites of Special Scientific Interest, the more established of these being the Huddersfield Narrow Canal between Portland Basin in Ashton and Roaches Bridge in Mossley, and part of the Hollinwood Branch Canal in Droylsden. At that same time, English Nature had recently notified the Council of the extension of the existing Dark Peak S.S.S.I. into the Borough at Boar Flat in Stalybridge. There were at the time 53 S.B.I.'s, of which 19 are classified Grade A i.e. of county or regional value. Two geological sites are recognised as having comparable value, both on the banks of the River Tame in Dukinfield, near Plantation Farm and Riverside. A number of wedges of open land extending from the wider countryside, plus railway, river and canal routes, provides continuity of habitat allowing species to penetrate the urban area along wildlife corridors. |
| 2.40 | The separate development of the towns and villages of Tameside, particularly in the 19th Century means that the Borough now displays a wide variety of townscape and historical features, reflecting differences in location, street layout, function, building materials, and sometimes the influence of particular landowners or industrialists. |
| 2.41 | There are characteristic stone built areas on the Pennine fringes in the east and red brick industrial towns in the centre and west of the Borough, each with an individual identity and often important local views and landmarks. Ashton and Stalybridge town centres in particular contain substantial areas where the original pattern of development and a number of imposing Victorian buildings are mostly intact, and a considerable number of distinctive multi-storey mills still survive in the Tame valley in Ashton, Stalybridge and Mossley. However, later development has sometimes been of indifferent quality, often using materials which do not harmonise with the traditions of the area, and a number of important historic buildings have been left to deteriorate, such as Stayley Hall. |
| 2.42 | There are currently 290 Listed Buildings in Tameside, including St.Michael's Church in Ashton which is Grade 1, and 14 which are Grade 2*. There are currently nine Conservation Areas, which include extensive parts of Ashton and Stalybridge's Victorian town centres, the canalside area at Portland Basin in Ashton, two industrial and one crossroads village in the east of the Borough, two small areas associated with churches, and the Fairfield Moravian Settlement in Droylsden considered to be outstanding. However, the Borough contains further buildings and areas of character which are not protected by these means. |
| 2.43 | The appearance of older urban areas of Tameside have suffered in a number of places from the effects of the decline of traditional industries, from deteriorating housing, and from general lack of maintenance of land and structures. Derelict land reclamation has however transformed previously despoiled sites in many parts of the Borough, whilst area improvement programmes have dealt with both housing and environmental conditions in particular neighbourhoods. Cleaning up of smaller scale eyesores and improvements to the street scene in urban areas have continued to the extent that limited funding permits, with concentration of impact in older housing areas and particular main road corridors. |
| 2.44 | Public awareness of and concern for the heritage of both the natural and built environment has grown considerably in recent years, and it is now expected that the environmental implications of schemes will be examined at the outset. Knowledge of wildlife factors continues to spread and concern is not limited to purely high profile Sites of Special Scientific Interest but extends into many locations within the built up area. There is now greater recognition of the benefits of retaining and improving older buildings of character and more traditional elements of urban form, not least because of the potential they can have for regeneration and tourism as well as keeping an area's identity. The value of trees is increasingly appreciated, both in relation to greening the urban area and providing recreational and wildlife opportunities, and expectations of the condition of the local environment are generally higher. |
| 2.45 | Government policy on conservation and the environment is fragmented but the succession of legislation and advice has generally reflected the trend of increasing public concern about these issues and controls have gradually been extended. Although there is no Groundwork Trust operating in Tameside, grant assistance has from time to time been secured for environmental works through the Mersey Basin Project and other sources. Conservation and environment is a many faceted topic and one in which management regimes are often as important as planning controls and where much can be achieved through practical action programmes if the resources are available. |
Page last updated: 5 September 2006