ABSTRACT
The Rural Development Assessment combines Planning, Landscape, Architecture, Community and Environmental considerations PLACE to borrow the acronym from others. The site and the development are described in terms of their attributes in relation to planning policy, the landscape, the existing and proposed architecture, the community in which the development will lie and the contribution it will make to the environment. To ensure assessment is carried out across the whole range of effects arising from rural development, it considers both the existing landscape and the existing settlement in order to ensure a holistic approach to the appraisal and to avoid the professional split that led to separate landscape and townscape appraisals. To assist in this clarity, and in order to present the proposal in most direct way possible, the assessment should begin with an executive summary, setting out an overview of compliance with policy and the effects of the scheme on the landscape, the settlement, community and the environment.
