A Somerset councillor has called on the government to protect the future of the Somerset Levels by designating it as the UK's newest national landscape.

National landscapes were previously known as areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) before being rebranded by Rishi Sunak's Conservative government in November 2023.

Somerset is currently home to four national landscapes – the Blackdown Hills, Cranborne Chase, the Mendip Hills and the Quantock Hills, along with the Exmoor National Park.

But Councillor Henry Hobhouse believes that the county is deserving of a fourth national landscape, arguing it will protect the Levels' historic character and enhance the natural environment.

Mr Hobhouse (who represents Castle Cary and the neighbouring villages) made his plea when Somerset Council's climate and place scrutiny committee met in Taunton on Monday morning (April 28).

Addressing representatives from the national landscapes' management teams, he said: "I'm completely at a loss about this. We have the biggest Ramsar site outside of Norfolk, and it's not down as a national landscape.

"Can you explain how we get this instituted as a national landscape? The Ramsar site, which came in back in 1971, should be designated in this way. We need to take this forward."

Just under one quarter (24 per cent) of Somerset falls within the boundary of either Exmoor or one of the national landscapes.

Mr Hobhouse has been a passionate campaigner for the future of the Levels, pressing the council to change its positions on phosphate pollution in a bid to both unlock thousands of new homes and clean up the county's polluted waterways.

Iain Porter, manager of the Quantock Hills national landscape team, replied: "From an outsider's point of view, I do view the Somerset Levels as being equally valid [as the Quantocks] in that respect."

Jimmy Divall, the council's head of service for climate and natural environment, added: "I'm unsure on what the designation progress is and what the criteria are, but we can have that conversation."

There are currently 46 national landscapes across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, in additional to the UK's national parks.

In order to become a national landscape, Natural England must make a formal proposal to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which can then enact the change into law.

To achieve national landscape status, a given idea must meet certain criteria, including: 

• landscape quality (i.e. where natural or man-made landscape is good quality)
• scenic quality (e.g. striking coastal landforms)
• relative wildness (i.e. distance from housing or having few roads)
• relative tranquillity (i.e. where natural sounds, such as streams or birdsong, are predominant)
• natural heritage features (i.e. distinctive geology or species and habitat)
• cultural heritage, which can include the built environment that makes the area unique, such as archaeological remains or historic parkland

Unlike national parks, national landscapes do not have their own powers regarding planning applications or licensing – meaning they do not enjoy the highest level of protection against future development.

The most recent national landscape to be designated was the Tamar Valley near Plymouth, back in 1995.

Three former AONBs have been abolished in recent years as a result of new national parks being created – with South Hampshire Coast AONB being subsumed into the New Forest National Park in 2005, and the East Hampshire and Sussex Downs AONBs being replaced in 2010 by the South Downs National Park.