IHBC Vice-Chair Kathy Davies and London Branch Chair Sheila Stones attended a dinner on 22 March hosted by Prospect Magazine – which describes itself as ‘the leading magazine of ideas’ – and ch2m, a major infrastructure company, to discuss the question ‘What do we preserve and how’?
Kathy Davies writes:
The event was chaired by Bronwen Maddox, Editor of Prospect Magazine and attended by a number of key figures in the heritage world as well as some academics and representatives of relevant companies, with invitees including:
- Paul Farrelly, MP, Newcastle-under-Lyme, who sits on the Culture, Media and Sport select committee
- Kate Mavor, Chief Executive Officer, English Heritage and past CEO of the National Trust for Scotland
- Sir Simon Jenkins, Author & Journalist, Former Chairman of National Trust
- Kate Pugh, CEO The Heritage Alliance,
- Duncan Wilson, CEO, Historic England
- Dr Jennifer Schooling, Director of the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction
The discussion was wide-ranging and forthright, with many useful topics discussed including:
- The value of tourism
- The impact of housing targets
- How to engage communities in managing the historic environment; facadism
- How to improve the quality of schemes submitted and of decision making, and much more.
Prospect is engaging in a programme of work on the future of cities involving public and private sector bodies. They are looking at creating places where people want to live and work, and how to achieve this.
Key considerations are planning, culture and green spaces and of course the IHBC had been flagged up as an interested party.
If you have any thoughts you would like to have passed on please do email Kathy at vicechair@ihbc.org.uk.
For Prospect see prospectmagazine.co.uk
