If our planning system has a heritage footsoldier, it is surely the conservation officer. These are the individuals who are meant to know about the listed buildings of the area in which they work and who can offer informed views not only about what makes them important, but how they can be appropriately adapted and developed.
When dealing with reasonable changes and demands on the part of owners, moreover, their role ought to be that of an expert facilitator, polishing and improving what has been proposed in heritage terms. Whatever their views on a particular project, it should also be possible for them to explain their opinions clearly so that their concerns can be understood and addressed. Athena has experience of many projects in which heritage conservation officers have performed exactly these positive roles. That’s not always the case, however, and she is conscious that there are clear patterns as to what tends to go wrong and why.
On the part of owners, it’s worth bearing in mind that the involvement of a conservation officer ought to begin early. To state the obvious, this can prevent the frustration of developing ideas that are clearly doomed to disappointment on heritage grounds. It can also establish a sense of mutual understanding and a consciousness of the specific interest and physical circumstances of the place in question. The ideal is for their first-hand experience of the property in the company of the senior professionals involved, but, unfortunately, that’s easier said than done.
Cuts within local authorities have left planning teams woefully under-resourced and with specialist expertise seriously eroded. It’s hard to put a figure on the change because it’s so uneven, but there are areas where there is presently no in-house heritage expertise at all. Historic England, meanwhile, will only involve itself with the most important listed buildings.
For hard-pressed planning teams, particularly those with little experience, it can be easier to follow rules to the letter and object to proposals outright than risk making a mistake. In such cases, it can be instructive by way of a response to visit other local properties and find precedents for what is intended; private owners and businesses occupying historic properties — say a country-house hotel — within the same locality are sometimes held to strikingly different standards.
Dealing with the planning system is complicated and it can be deeply frustrating. In seeking to improve it, however, it is important not to confuse an excess of red tape with inadequate resources. Both cause obstruction and paralysis, of course, but the former enforces rules of no utility or purpose, whereas the latter makes onerous and inefficient the observance of regulations that have merit. If we had more heritage conservation officers with more time and greater latitude of action, we might all be a great deal happier than, as at present, when we have too few.
Athena is Country Life's cultural crusader. She writes a column every week.
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