After farming and land management, the land use planning system has the biggest influence on the conservation and enhancement of natural beauty in the North Pennines. The four Local Planning Authorities are Durham County Council, Northumberland County Council, Cumberland Council and Westmorland & Furness Council.
This management plan does not include ‘policies’; rather the whole plan ‘formulates the policy of local authorities in relation to their National Landscape’ (S. 89 Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000)). The management plan provides context and greater detail for the necessarily more broad-brush Local Plan policies in relation to the National Landscape.
In relation to the Protected Landscapes Duty (LURA, 2023, S.245), this plan articulates what ‘seeking to further the purpose of designation’ might look like in reality, and so it can guide the practice of all those affected by the Duty, including planning authorities, and, by extension, developers, as well as all other Relevant Authorities under the Act.
Local authorities should have robust North Pennines National Landscape policies in their Local Plans to ensure that:
- development meets community need whilst protecting the area’s natural beauty;
- development does not compromise the setting of the National Landscape;
- decision making ensures conformity with the Protected Landscapes Duty (to seek to further the purpose of designation);
- Planning Policy and Development Management decisions take full account of the Management Plan, including the Planning and Design Guide, which is an integral component of the Plan;
Neighbourhood Plans within the National Landscape and its setting should include policies which meet community need whilst supporting the conservation and enhancement of natural beauty and bolstering the character of local settlements. Such plans would also fall under the Protected Landscapes Duty.
The detail of the approach to planning and design matters in the National Landscape can be found in the Draft North Pennines Planning and Design Guidelines (revised 2025). This sets out detailed measures on all matters of planning and design, from built development, to telecoms, renewables, moorland tracks, lighting, and landscape features on development sites. These guidelines are subject to the same public consultation as the rest of the management plan, of which it forms a formal component.