A landscape concern needs more than “this will spoil the view”. Identify the place, the qualities that matter and the proposed change. A comment can explain how a development affects landscape character or a relevant visual relationship without claiming a right to preserve a private view.
Start with the actual site and policy documents. Check the council's adopted policies map and, where relevant, the official protected-landscape boundary. A countryside location, Green Belt designation, National Landscape and conservation area involve different questions. Record each designation accurately.
Character and visual effects are different questions
Landscape character concerns the features and patterns that help make an area what it is. These might include landform, field boundaries, vegetation, settlement pattern or the relationship between development and open land. Describe the particular characteristic, using an applicable assessment where available.
A visual effect concerns what can be seen from a viewpoint and how the view changes. Identify where the viewer is, what the proposal would alter and what currently exists. A building can be visible without causing unacceptable harm; screening from one viewpoint does not establish that every landscape effect has been avoided.
The Green Belt and MOL guide deals with openness and the relevant policy route. Do not substitute a landscape preference for that assessment, or assume Green Belt protection applies to all countryside.
Read the assessment that fits the task
National planning guidance identifies landscape character assessments, sensitivity or capacity assessments, and landscape and visual impact assessments as different evidence tools. Check which document has actually been submitted and what question it addresses.
Find its study area, baseline, viewpoints, proposal description and proposed mitigation. Does it use the current scheme and acknowledge the feature you mean? If a report assesses an earlier design, identify the discrepancy by drawing revision rather than announcing that the entire assessment is invalid.
You do not need to assign a professional significance rating. A focused observation can identify a missing relationship, an unclear assumption or a viewpoint that does not show a relevant feature.
Collect viewpoints responsibly
Use places you may lawfully access. State the viewpoint and direction, and provide enough context to show where the proposal would sit. Keep the date and explain whether vegetation is in leaf where that affects your observation.
Avoid presenting a cropped close-up as the complete street or landscape scene. Do not enlarge a proposal on a photograph and describe the result as an accurate visualisation. Applicant photomontages and third-party drawings should not be copied into a public article or represented as your own work.
If a viewpoint is within your home, explain the relationship carefully. The private-views guide distinguishes loss of a private view from other planning effects. A separate concern about enclosure or outlook should identify the affected room or garden and the actual building relationship.
Protected landscapes require the correct policy and evidence
The current 2026 national Framework's N4 policy addresses development within Protected Landscapes and their settings. It includes a particular approach to major development within them. For that policy, whether a proposal is major involves a judgement about its nature, scale, setting and potential effects; do not import a generic application-size threshold as the answer.
Find the relevant management plan and the statement of special qualities. Planning guidance explains that management plans provide context and potentially relevant evidence, while not forming part of the statutory development plan. Identify their actual version and status.
A proposal outside a designation can still require consideration of its effect on that landscape's setting. Explain the relationship rather than assuming that a boundary ends every possible effect. Equally, do not describe the setting as an automatic no-development buffer.
Examine mitigation over time
Distinguish retained vegetation from new planting. Ask what the drawings and supporting documents say about establishment, maintenance and replacement, and what the arrangement would be before planting matures.
Screening is not the only issue. A new hedge may change a characteristic open landscape, and a planted boundary may conceal part of a structure while leaving its broader land-use pattern unchanged. Explain the particular relationship.
Use the trees and wildlife guide for ecological and arboricultural evidence. A landscape photograph does not establish the absence of protected species or the health of a retained tree.
Write the comment around a clear comparison
State the source describing the existing characteristic, identify the proposed feature and explain the change. For example, point to the part of a layout that alters a documented settlement edge rather than simply labelling the whole proposal “out of character”.
Ask the council to assess the identified relationship or clarify an assumption. Avoid claims that every visible building is harmful, that undesignated land has no value, or that a designation guarantees refusal. The useful contribution is a traceable explanation of the effect needing judgement.
Sources and corrections
Source scope checked on 27 October 2026. Contains public sector information under the Open Government Licence v3.0 where applicable. No third-party drawings or photos reproduced. Report a correction with the sentence and source.
Current NPPF natural environment — N2(1),N4(1)–(4),footnote59. - Natural environment PPG — Paragraphs036–042. - Current NPPF version — 2026versionstatement.