4.1 Monitoring progress

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This document, i.e. the Strategy, including the visions, objectives and policies, will continue to be reviewed at five-yearly intervals, so the next plan will be published in 2014. A new five year Action Plan will also be prepared as part of this review, based on the objectives and policies. This will enable the plan to continue to adapt to changing circumstances as necessary.

Monitoring the condition of the area’s natural beauty

Monitoring of the condition of the area, in terms of the state of its natural beauty, is covered in ‘A special place’.  The assessment of current condition is based on a set of indicators, which are limited by currently available information and by resources required to survey and set up new indicators specifically for the area and to repeat surveys at five yearly intervals.

The current condition includes some assessment of trends, where information is available to support this. The assessment will be repeated before the next review of the Management Plan i.e. at approximately five years from the assessment presented in this plan, and published as part of the review. In this way, the condition monitoring will continue to provide input to management of the area. In addition, some actions have been identified within the Action Plan for 2009-14 to improve information for monitoring the condition of the area’s natural beauty.

Over time this will enable a better understanding of what is happening in the area, how it is changing and the causes of the changes. Information will enable more effective partnership working by providing a sound basis for making decisions on how to try to influence and manage those changes.

Monitoring implementation of the Management Plan

The objectives, policies and actions within the 2009-14 Management Plan have all been formulated with the intention of conserving and enhancing the area’s natural beauty, which is the focus of the plan. It may not always be possible to relate observed improvements in the condition of natural beauty to specific policies or actions, but maintenance and improvement of the area’s natural beauty observed through condition monitoring should provide a strong indication that policies and actions are having a positive effect. Similarly, negative changes will highlight aspects where further consideration is required in the next five year plan.

The objectives and policies are drawn from the issues (including those arising from the condition assessment), and from the vision for the AONB and its management. During the public consultation period, an Action Plan based on these objectives and policies was developed by Partners, also taking account of input from the public. The action plan sets out specific agreed actions where necessary and assigns priorities to these actions looking five years ahead. The Strategy also identifies existing partner plans and initiatives that can help to implement policies and achieve objectives.

While objectives and policies will remain unchanged over the five years of the plan, the Action Plan will be regularly updated and reviewed to take account of actions completed and to allow review and updating of actions and priorities.

Monitoring of progress on the Action Plan will be done through a review by the Partners and there will be a publicly available document to show actions completed, in progress, modified or added. An annual progress report will also be published.