How To Object
Part 2: DAERA Responds, and the Answer Raises More Questions
We have now received DAERA’s response to our Environmental Information Regulations request concerning the unexplained appearance of “Lagan Valley National Landscape” on Google Maps.
The response is strikingly clear on several important points.
DAERA states:
“No formal policy exists on the consideration of the use of the term ‘National Landscape’ in relation to Northern Ireland’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”
It also confirms that there is no correspondence between DAERA and DEFRA, National Landscapes UK, Ordnance Survey, Google, local councils or any other organisation concerning the naming, branding or mapping of Northern Ireland’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Perhaps most importantly, DAERA confirms:
“Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty remains the only statutory landscape designation recognised in Northern Ireland.”
Following a search of its records, the Department says that the additional information we requested is not held, formally applying the exception under Regulation 12(4)(a) of the Environmental Information Regulations.
So how did it happen?
This leaves us with an interesting question.
We have a dated screenshot from September 2024 showing Google Maps identifying the protected landscape as “Lagan Valley National Landscape”. The Google listing itself linked to DAERA.
We now also have a July 2026 screenshot showing that same landscape once again identified as “Lagan Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”
Yet according to DAERA, there was no formal policy adopting the National Landscape terminology, no relevant correspondence with Google or the other organisations we identified, and AONB remained the statutory designation throughout.
That does not necessarily mean that anything improper occurred. Google Maps listings can change for many reasons, and DAERA’s response does not establish who made the alteration or why. What it does establish is that, according to the Department’s records, the change was not the result of a formal DAERA policy to rename Northern Ireland’s AONBs.
Why we asked in the first place
It would be easy to dismiss this as a curiosity about a name on a map. We don’t think it is quite that simple.
The language attached to protected landscapes helps shape how those landscapes are understood. “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty” is not simply an attractive description. It is the name of a statutory landscape designation.
For communities engaging with planning proposals inside or adjoining these landscapes, clarity matters. Developers, planners, elected representatives and the public should be left in no doubt about the status of the land being discussed.
This is particularly relevant at a time when the language surrounding planning and landscape protection is changing elsewhere. In England, AONBs have been rebranded as “National Landscapes”, while their statutory designation remains AONB. DAERA’s response tells us that Northern Ireland did not formally follow that process.
A small question with a useful answer
When we first noticed the change in 2024, we took a screenshot. At the time, there was no way of knowing whether it would ever be important.
Two years later, that screenshot provides a record of something which DAERA itself appears to have no documentation explaining.
And perhaps that is the useful outcome of asking the question.
Lagan Valley remains an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. That is its statutory designation, and DAERA has now confirmed it in writing.
For Quarterlands Group, that confirmation is worth putting on the record.
DAERA response dated 5 August 2026, reference DAERA/26-451.
See the full response from DAERA here