Landscape and Joint Character Areas (JCA) information
The FEP requires the surveyor to carry out a 'landscape assessment' of the farm and it’s immediate surroundings. All of England has been divided into areas with similar landscape character, which have been called Joint Character Areas (JCAs). We have provided a list of key characteristics for each Joint Character Area to help complete the FEP.
To complete Section 3 of the FEP form you will need to fill in a table to record the presence or absence, condition and appropriate management strategy for the ‘key landscape characteristics’ of your farm and area. The electronic version of the form will do this automatically once a JCA has been selected. If you are filling in the table by hand you will need to get the appropriate list for the JCA your farm is in, either by selecting it from the menu below, choosing your county or region from the appropriate menus, or clicking the interactive map.
A map showing the location of the individual character areas is available [400KB], and further background information, including detailed descriptions of each character area is available on the Countryside Agency website.
The lists of key characteristics are provided in Adobe Reader 7 (![[Click to download Adobe Acrobat Reader]](/graphics/buttons/pdf.gif){kind=small}
) format. All files are between 150 and 350 KB. For further information you should refer to pages 26 to 29 (section 3.2) of the FEP Guidance Handbook.
Please note that joint character areas (JCAs) can overlap county and Government Office regional borders. You may find that the JCA you are interested in will cover two or more counties or regions as a result. If you live near a county or regional border and cannot find a particular character area, you could also check neighbouring counties and regions for further information.
What to do if your land is near to a boundary of a JCA
JCAs do not have definitive boundaries so if your land is near to a boundary of one or more JCAs we suggest that the lists of key characteristics for each area are taken out on site so that the you can determine which JCA best fits your land. You must only use the characteristics from one JCA, do not select characteristics from two or more different JCAs to create a new list for your land.
What to do if your land lies within more than one JCA
Some larger holdings or holdings which cover land in two or more separate areas may well lie within more than one JCA. It is important that you select one main JCA as we will be judging your HLS application against our targets for individual JCAs. The main JCA may be the one in which most of your land falls or the one where most of the HLS management is planned. Only the area of land that falls within the selected JCA should be assessed against the selected key landscape characteristics. The second table in part 3.1 of the FEP form can be used to list the relevant key characteristics of the secondary JCA (or more) for the remaining area of land and an assessment made of their presence, condition and appropriate management strategy.
Local Landscape Character Assessments
In some parts of the country more detailed landscape assessments have been carried out. The The Landscape Character Network website lists these additional local landscape character assessments. If one has been carried out in your area then please list any relevant additional local key landscape characteristics that have been identified in the second table in part 3.1 of the FEP form and make an assessment of their presence, condition and appropriate management strategy as well.
Priorities for landscape management and enhancement
The name of the secondary JCA (or more) and any local landscape character assessment used should be noted in the text box at the end of part 3.1 of the FEP form entitled ‘Priorities for landscape management & enhancement’. An assessment of the size of the areas of land falling in the two (or more) different JCAs should also be noted in the text box at the end of part 3.1 of the FEP form. Additional comments should also be noted in this text box as described on page 29 of the FEP handbook.
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Page last modified:
26 April, 2006
Page published: 22 April, 2005