Somerset Landscape Sensitivity Assessment

Somerset Council (the Council) became the elected local government authority responsible for the local government services in the majority of the county of Somerset in April 2023. The Council is a unitary authority formed from the previous district councils of Mendip (Area East), Sedgemoor (Area North), Somerset West and Taunton (Area West) and South Somerset (Area South), excluding the area covered by Exmoor National Park, which has its own Local Planning Authority (LPA).

The Council is in the process of preparing a new Somerset Local Plan, to replace all former District Council Local Plans. To support the drafting of the Somerset Local Plan, the Council requires an up to date evidence base to inform decision making. As part of this evidence base, the Council needs to consider whether the landscape has the capacity to accommodate new development without causing significant adverse effects on its landscape character.

LUC was commissioned by the Council in November 2024 to undertake a Landscape Sensitivity Assessment (the ‘study’) for residential and commercial development around a number of the county’s settlements. The outputs from this assessment provide the Council with the necessary robust evidence base to inform the appropriate scale and location of future development to minimise harm to the landscape and the setting of settlements.