Time for further Building Conservation Legislation? - TrustNews Sept 2004
Background
The following dates give a very brief summary of the hesitant, step-by-step introduction of legislation to protect the built heritage of this country.
1873 John Lubbock (1st Lord Avebury) attempted to introduce a Bill to prevent the destruction of ancient monuments. These were confined to standing stones, barrows and the like. Repeated attempts were largely thwarted for the next forty years on the grounds of the superior importance of property rights.
[1877 SPAB founded to lobby for the protection of mediaeval buildings against the ruthless remodelling of the preceding century.]
1882 Bill passed permitting the State to purchase and care for historic monuments (but only with the owner's agreement); this power was extended to County Councils in 1900.
1913 Bill passed introducing the first element of compulsion.
1932 Town and Country Planning Act for the first time included the listing of inhabited buildings; also provision for tree preservation orders.
[1937 Breakaway Georgian Group founded by members frustrated by SPAB's lack of concern for the destruction of Georgian buildings.]
1944 Wartime damage prompted the first comprehensive listing of historic buildings of all kinds.
1953 Continued loss of great houses for economic reasons resulted in an Act introducing grants and tax relief.
1967 Civic Amenities Act passed, introducing Conservation Area legislation following the destruction of large areas of historic character during the period of post-war redevelopment and urban road building. This was a very significant step recognising the importance of whole areas rather than individual buildings (similar to the French zones protégés).
Conclusions
From this over-simplified summary, it can be seen that after a very protracted struggle to get the process started, major steps forward in legislation seem to have been taken each decade. And that for the most part these steps have been prompted by events, which showed the need for further protective measures; it is indeed very unfortunate that the measures were not taken until after much loss and damage had occurred.
There have, of course, been several further refinements in the law since the end of the sixties but not, we suggest, any step comparable in importance with those of the preceding decades. This is probably because the creation of conservation areas and a growing awareness of the value of our heritage have together served to prevent damage on the scale of previous years.
New threats
However, in our view and that of many others, there is now a new threat of damage on a very large scale. Just as it was realised that heritage areas needed careful handling, we now believe that small heritage towns need similar care during the implementation of current Government policies. And in the same way, as well-intentioned policies, crudely applied in the 50s and 60s, resulted in widespread damage to nationally important inner-city areas (see Aidous: Goodbye Britain), crude implementation of PPG3 and the Government's housing growth policies are now beginning to damage small but nationally important towns and cities, especially in the south east.
Increases in density and the construction of new areas of housing are not intrinsically the problem. Nor, especially in the case of PPG3, have the guidelines from the ODPM been wrongly conceived. The problem is almost entirely to do with their implementation at local level. The Government must, however, accept that it has responsibility for the outcome of what it hands down. The sudden imposition (ruthlessly policed by GOSE) of density increases and housing targets, has meant that ill-resourced local planning authorities have neither the time nor the skills to manage the introduction of these swinging changes properly.
The results are unpopular everywhere, but the built heritage is reasonably well protected in inner-city areas and villages by their conservation area status. It is in the leafy suburbs and around the fringes of our small heritage towns and cities, many with vitally important country settings, that the damage is being done, and will be done on an increasing scale and at an increasing rate until, as in the 60s, we look back at the destruction and say, how did we let this happen?
Proposal
The example provided by the wording of the Conservation Area legislation and its subsequent success show, in our opinion, the means of legislating for the "Heritage Town Status" that we now propose.
Conservation area status was not meant to, nor has it prevented change, and it is not our wish to prevent Winchester or the many other comparable small towns and cities from continuing to change as they always have done in the past. The object would be to ensure that change must be handled in such a way as to "maintain and enhance their historic and architectural character" (including their setting). These are the words used in the Act, and they could be used again to apply to towns designated as having heritage status. In the same way that local authorities were helped to draw up their conservation area policies, we hope that each heritage town would be assisted in appointing an expert master planner.
Two further points about the legislation need to be emphasised. There was some dispute at the time over whether the writing of specific policies for the conservation areas or the designation of the areas should come first; it has been universally recognised that the decision to designate first was correct. Secondly, one serious mistake has been admitted by those who drafted the legislation: it required the use of planning powers to "maintain and enhance....”, but omitted to require the use of highway and transport powers to the same end.
The way forward
New legislation of this sort is not achieved quickly, and events are moving fast - Mr Prescott is in a hurry. So if the damage described above is to be limited before too much of our heritage is lost once again, we must also move fast. It is a question of gaining support for the idea and finding a leader of greater stature than the City of Winchester Trust.
The introduction of the ground-breaking Conservation Area legislation, which was of such huge national importance, was promoted by the Civic Trust when Duncan Sandys was chairman. Could the Civic Trust do it again, or should we look for help elsewhere?