Stepping Stones

Stepping Stones through Green Wedges

The Countryside around urban areas is under pressure from a variety of sources as the urban and rural landscape merge. It is also on the doorstep of a large population requiring access to the countryside and recreational facilities. However the countryside around towns is also attractive and provides a fantastic opportunity for community based conservation work and innovative solutions to these pressures.

The Stepping Stones Project works with community groups, Parish Councils and landowners in the Parishes around Leicester to help then to enhance the countryside for the benefit or people and wildlife.

One way of achieving this objective is through working within Green Wedges, which are open, relatively undeveloped areas of land that link town and countryside. These areas are identified in the Leicestershire County Council Structure Plan and the relevant Local Plans.

The Project aims to help protect the landscape and character of Green Wedges, which prevent the merging of settlements and maintain their local identity. To achieve this aim the Project is working with people who live in and around green wedges. There are currently four Green Wedge Management Strategies for Scraptoft, Anstey and Sence and Soar Valley South and Oadby and Wigston. These strategies offer recommendations for management of land within these valuable oases, which can be used as guidance for future development.

Sence and Soar Green Wedge Strategy