The Malvern Hills National Landscape Joint Advisory Committee met to discuss water quality monitoring, planning matters, and woodland management in the Malvern Hills National Landscape. The committee was also scheduled to receive a presentation from local artist Juliet Mootz on engaging different groups with the landscape, and to note information items and verbal reports from partners.

Planning Matters

The committee was scheduled to discuss several planning matters, including the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act, solar developments, telecommunication masts, and the use of land for motocross.

The report pack included an update on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 ¹ duty, and potential amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. It noted that ministers were reported to be exploring amendments that would roll back the new Protected Landscapes duty from seek to further the purposes of National Parks and National Landscapes to the older, weaker have due regard test. The strengthened duty came into force at the end of 2023, and the report pack noted that a reversal of the duty had received strong pushback from the National Landscape Association (NLA), National Parks England, and from other organisations.

The committee was also scheduled to discuss a recent increase in ground-mounted solar proposals around the Malvern Hills National Landscape ². These included:

• Chapel Hill / Monksfield Farm: An application for the construction of a solar farm and battery energy storage system across multiple parcels of land between Newland, Powick, Leigh Sinton and Bransford. The total development land is approximately 124 ha, spanning around 3km from west to east. The Malvern Hills National Landscape Team objected to the proposed scheme based on scale, an underscoped Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA), and underplayed effects in nationally important views from the Hills. The team's consultation response emphasised the Malvern Hills National Landscape Partnership's position statement on renewable energy, which explains how many of the defining features and Special Qualities of the Malvern Hills National Landscape are threatened by climate change, and that renewable energy has an important role in mitigating these impacts and achieving decarbonisation. The position statement also states that the Malvern Hills National Landscape and its setting is unlikely to be able to accommodate large-scale solar developments as they could:

  • be highly visible in open landscapes, when looking at from high ground, and on the upper slopes of hillsides, especially where covering significant areas;
  • lead to a perceived increase in human/industrialising influences on the landscape;
  • result in land use change and the appearance of one or more fields, affecting land cover textures and patterns; and
  • introduce a regular edge that can be particularly conspicuous in more irregular landscapes (especially where the panels do not follow contours).

• Grove Farm, Pendock: An application for a change of use to provide a microgrid array of solar panels to serve a site to the west which is being developed for housing. The site is approximately 3.6 ha and roughly 2.5km from the Malvern Hills National Landscape boundary. The Malvern Hills National Landscape Team issued a holding objection pending further information due to inadequacies with the applicant's Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA).

• Land at Sinton's End Farm, Acton Beauchamp: An application for a solar development covering nearly 40 ha. The Malvern Hills National Landscape Team objected based on a lack of information and evidence. The application was refused in early October 2025, with the officer's report primarily stating insufficient information as the reason for refusal.

The committee was also scheduled to discuss telecommunication masts, including a response on the Hillcourt Farm, Welland application. The Malvern Hills National Landscape Team explained that while new infrastructure is essential, it still needs sensitive siting/design and proportionate assessment in a protected landscape. The application lacked a robust Landscape and Visual Assessment (LVA) to demonstrate why the site proposed is the best available option, and all other options have been exhausted (including upgrades to existing sites or use of buildings).

Finally, the committee was scheduled to discuss the use of land at Riley Hill Farm, Cradley for motocross. Earthworks to form a motocross track and jumps were undertaken without permission ahead of a refused Certificate of Lawfulness of Existing Use or Development (CLEUD). Herefordshire Council then moved to tighten control by making an Article 4 Direction ³ removing permitted development rights for further earthworks/track works and related temporary uses. Two enforcement appeals are now before the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) by Public Inquiry.

Water Quality Monitoring

The committee was scheduled to receive a report from Paul Esrich, NL Partnership Manager, on water quality monitoring in the Malvern Hills National Landscape.

The report pack noted that Outcome 5 in the Malvern Hills National Landscape Management Plan is that:

The water flowing within and from the National Landscape is clean and safe, helping to restore nature, improve people's health and well-being, and contribute to the local economy; flooding is managed in harmony with nature.

The report pack included data provided by Natural England in January 2024 on the ecological status of 25,500 metres of water courses and water bodies in the Malvern Hills National Landscape. This data revealed that 85% of water courses were in moderate condition, 3.3% were poor, and 11.7% were bad.

The committee was also scheduled to discuss new sampling work on the Whippets Brook and Careys Brook. The white-clawed crayfish occurs in a stretch of these brooks, which have headwaters in the Malvern Hills National Landscape before flowing down from north Malvern to meet the River Severn. The Malvern Hills National Landscape Team has recently agreed to financially support the Severn Rivers Trust to establish a number of water quality monitoring points on these brooks.

The report pack also included observations on a water pollution incident in the National Landscape. Data collected by local volunteers showed the water at one point in one of the brooks in the Malvern Hills National Landscape was polluted at the beginning of June 2025 and continues to be polluted as this report is being written. It is presumed that the source is agricultural.

Woodland Management

The committee was scheduled to receive a report from Paul Esrich, NL Partnership Manager, on woodland management in the Malvern Hills National Landscape.

The report pack noted that national targets for the delivery of nature recovery are as follows:

• Target 1. Restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of a range of wildlife-rich habitats outside protected sites by 2042 (from a 2022 baseline).
• Target 8. Increase tree canopy and woodland cover (combined) by 3% of total land area in Protected Landscapes by 2050 (from 2022 baseline)

The report pack stated that the Malvern Hills National Landscape Team has sought to make available additional support and encouragement to woodland owners and managers in the form of free advice and sometimes additional funding opportunities, with the intention of boosting the amount of informed woodland management taking place in the area. Since 2020, a contract with Bearwood Associates Limited has delivered or helped to deliver:

• Woodland management advice to 27 landowners covering approximately 300 hectares of woodland.
• 20 Countryside Stewardship Woodland Management Plans (WMPS) in both full and small formats – for woodland holdings; 11 of these have reached Forestry Commission approval stage; the remainder are either at preparation or appraisal stage. In total, these WMPs cover about 250 hectares of woodland.
• Three woodland holdings have been financially supported by the Malvern Hills National Landscape Partnership with direct grants to undertake actual woodland management works, including thinning, coppicing and livestock exclusion fencing.
• Three England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) schemes, for the establishment of new native woodlands on farmland have been initiated.

Information Items

The committee was scheduled to note the information items in the report pack. These included updates on:

• AONB Landowner/farmer events
• Capital funding for 30x30 works
• Burying overhead powerlines
• Farm advisory work
• Botanical surveys of restored meadow sites
• Parkland Management Plan for the Old Colwall land holding in Herefordshire
• Condition of the Shire Ditch Scheduled Ancient Monument
• Geology Volunteers
• Deer larder
• Geology Videos
• Map App
• Art in the Landscape Project – Nature Calling, coordinated by the National Landscapes Association and led by local artist Juliet Mootz
• Cradley Wild Environmental Group
• Access for All