Community Landscape Character Statements can help to put landscape character at the heart of the local planning system. We have prepared this Step-By-Step Guide to get you started and show the process and benefits of preparing a Statement. Order the full 'Unlocking the Landscape' action pack for more detailed guidance on community involvement and compatibility with the planning process.

CPRE hopes that Defra's Natural Environment White Paper will set out an ambitious landscape-scale approach to conservation, putting existing protected areas and wildlife sites at its heart. This response explains CPRE's belief that the process must be closely integrated with planning reform, while recognising that the intrinsic value of the natural environment is every bit as important as the ‘ecosystem services’ it offers.

This guide outlines a range of way in which local volunteers and groups can work with others to identify, promote and create local landscape diversity and distinctiveness.

Our policy on hunting with hounds.

This report sets the foundation for our work on landscape, providing a clear definition of what is meant by countryside character and describing how it can be promoted through recent policy developments. The report also provides powerful illustrations of the value of England’s diversity of landscapes.

Our policy on coasts and estuaries.

A map showing proposed new developments that would be in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty across England.

Unlocking the landscape is designed to put landscape character at the the heart of the local planning system. The comprehensive toolkit can help you prepare a Community Landscape Character Statement, a new process we have developed to give local communities a say in the future of their local countryside. Local knowledge and aspirations are a central part of this process, but recorded information must be compatible with the planning process. The pack includes guidance, a sample statement and a MAC/PC compatible CD-ROM.