National Landscapes
Suffolk is home to two nationally designated landscapes (previously known as Areas of Outstanding Natural beauty): the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape in the east and the Dedham Vale National Landscape in the south. These are places of national importance with distinctive interconnecting factors that make these places special.
The Suffolk and Essex Coast and Heaths National Landscape is a low-lying coastal landscape of astonishing variety, stretching from the Stour estuary in North Essex, up to Kessingland in North Suffolk, covering 403 square kilometres. The landscape encompasses a unique mixture of shingle beaches, crumbling cliffs, marshes, estuaries, heathland, forests, and farmland. Its picturesque countryside, towns and villages have an unspoilt and tranquil atmosphere, with a very distinctive ‘Suffolk’ character.
The Dedham Vale National Landscape is a characteristic lowland English landscape on the Suffolk-Essex border. Picturesque villages, rolling farmland, rivers, meadows, ancient woodlands combine to create what many describe as the traditional English lowland landscape. Because much of East Anglia’s traditional grasslands is used for arable farming, the hedgerows and wildflower meadows of the Dedham Vale are among some of England’s most precious and vulnerable pastoral landscapes.
These important landscapes are protected through national and local policy to ensure that the quality, distinctiveness, and vitality of the local environment is maintained.
Each is covered by a Management Plan which is written and implemented by the Suffolk National Landscape Partnership.
The Partnership consists of 26 bodies, including the SPS, with special interests in the designated landscapes and SPS works closely with the national Landscape Team’s Planning Officers on development cases that have the potential to impact the visual qualities of Suffolk’s designated landscapes.
Valued landscape
Suffolk also has other distinctive landscapes such as the Brecks and Fenlands in the west, the Stour Valley project area in the south and the Waveney Valley in the north of the county. These are also very special and often known as Valued Landscapes, but lack the high levels of planning protection as the National Landscapes.
These increasingly form a major focus of our planning work.
