Plans to simplify the rules surrounding heritage assets could help boost economic growth, butPlanning magazine’s Michael Donnelly reports that there are concerns about the resources available on the front line.
Alongside the recent update on the Penfold report, heritage and conservation sector interests, from regulators and professionals to clients and customers, are clear that the ongoing reduction in capacity across England’s local authority conservation and archaeology services is a major barrier to progress in improving the customer service in this critical area.
Quotable quotes:
Jonathan Thompson, heritage adviser at the Country Land and Business Association, said: ‘The basic problem is that the heritage protection system requires resourcing that is not actually there. The system needs expert assessment, but that requires a good deal of resourcing and Government has reduced it dramatically over the past ten years and, in particular, the last six months.’
A DCMS spokesman said that ‘… due to parliamentary pressures, it has not yet been possible to make the necessary legislative changes… We are continuing to examine vehicles to take this simplification forward.’
English Heritage national planning director Chris Smith said: ‘Almost all of the agencies that handle non-planning consents have their own standards of practice for everything they do, but they publish them separately. Penfold’s proposition to draw these together, to create common standards where possible and to make them available through the same access points should make the system easier.’
IHBC director Sean O’Reilly: ‘The simplification of the non-planning consents regime is possible, provided there are the skills and expertise within local authorities to give the kind of advice that is expected by clients and customers. There’s no reason why this shouldn’t happen provided the other support and infrastructure is in place, but it looks like the situation is only getting worse rather than better….’
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