The brief
We were commissioned to prepare a combined Landscape Management and Maintenance Plan for a new residential development. The site already contained valuable existing ecological features that the consented scheme had been carefully designed around, and the management plan needed to look after both the existing fabric and the new landscape introduced by the development — ensuring the site continued to deliver its intended function as habitat and recreational space.
Our approach
Rather than treating hard and soft landscape elements as separate categories, the plan addressed them in an integrated way. Hard landscape components — paving, lighting, surface materials, boundary structures — were given clear management objectives alongside the soft landscape elements of vegetation, grassland, hedge and tree planting. Each component had a stated purpose, a maintenance regime, and a performance check at each inspection visit.
The detail
The plan cross-referenced the Phase 1 Ecology Survey and the existing biodiversity baseline, so that ecological features were managed for the right outcomes (habitat creation, connectivity, the right cutting regimes for wildflower areas, retention of dead wood and brash where ecologically valuable) rather than tidied up by a generic grounds-maintenance approach. As with all our LMPs, the document was structured around a 15-year horizon: the first five years on establishment, then ten years of ongoing maintenance and management with scheduled inspection visits and review points. The result is a single readable, defensible plan that delivers both landscape and ecological outcomes through a coordinated management approach.
Working on a similar project?
If you are preparing a planning application that needs landscape evidence — from a single dwelling to a major EIA scheme — we can help. Tell us about your site and we will respond with a fixed fee and programme within one working day.
