Landscape Planning at the Regional Scale: An example from North West England

Landscape planning in the UK tends to concentrate on the site and the landscape scales. Concepts of sustainable development and the re-discovered importance of regional-level planning suggest, however, that there is a growing case for the landscape community to develop a regional planning perspective and to engage in wider areas of decision making in order to assist landscape planning goals. These challenges are explored with particular reference to the North West of England which, through the work of an organization called Sustainability North West and the production of a Regional Landscape Strategy, has been at the forefront of regional-level landscape planning in the UK. A brief account is provided of the production of the Regional Landscape Strategy with some reflections on the experience, highlighting some of the problems and potential of the approach. An exploration of the scope for the wider integration of landscape planning within the new regional arrangements is given.