<b><b>Andrew Leech suggests that the very nature of housebuilding means that it is never out of the public eye when it comes to environmental issues. But are enough developers using landscaping skills to their full advantage?</b></b><br><b>New developments on greenfield sites are frequently the butt of local criticism, yet so much of this could be placated by prudent landscaping. </b><br><b>At the Countryside's Great Notley flagship development near Braintree in Essex, the firm has spent more than £2m on creating parks, lakes, ponds, play areas and even an amphitheatre. It even had an award winning garden at last month's (May) Chelsea Flower Show. </b><br><b><b>Selling point </b></b><br> David Fountain, the company's director of landscaping, says: &amp;"We take it very seriously and we have a chairman who appreciates that good landscaping helps sell houses and creates new environments. <p></p><p>&amp;"We never spend less than around £500 per plot on soft landscaping of the front gardens of any our houses. And for our £3m homes in Ascot we are spending around £20,000 on the front garden of each property.&amp;" </p><p>But while Countryside has its own in-house team of landscape designers and &amp;"implementers&amp;", there are hundreds of BALI (British Association of Landscape Industries) accredited landscape specialists who …