IHBC Wales Branch Chair, architect Richard Dean, strongly welcomed the Heritage Minister’s recent launch of his ‘ambitions for heritage’, and encouraged their application in the changing operational culture of the Assembly Government. Dean said: ‘The IHBC fully supports the Minster’s call to avoid ‘focussing narrowly on conserving a small number of select monuments, fenced off and set apart’. We look forward to this approach being reflected across government policy, not least in any re-draft of the Conservation Principles.’
Cadw reported on the launch of the Minister’s ambitions as follows:
On 6 August at the National Eisteddfod in Bala, the Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones outlined his ambition for the Historic Environment in Wales, which gave an insight into his Strategic Statement and Action Plan for the sector, which will be announced during plenary in September.
In setting the context for his ambitions, the Minister said that the notion of ‘Bro’, or an area which a person was brought up or lives in, is central to the way that people relate to the Historic Environment, people relate to historic sites that have a personal or local significance for them.
In outlining his ambition, the Minister said: ‘Caring for our inheritance is a duty and a privilege, but the full significance of this responsibility is only apparent in a broader context. We live in times of rapid change and great challenges. Beneath the ‘credit crunch’ lies the fundamental need to make the transition to a more sustainable way of life: one that not only respects environmental limits, but also promotes human values and our sense of community rather than undermines them. Helping Welsh citizens to develop a real affinity with our historic environment is an integral part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s approach to sustainability.
‘It follows that any strategy for the historic environment cannot focus narrowly on conserving a small number of select monuments, fenced off and set apart. Take our three World Heritage Sites; all of them superb feats of engineering; cutting-edge stuff in global terms. But equally important are the stories of the men and women whose lives were changed forever by these sites. These tales of political struggles, huge wealth and grinding poverty need to be told in vivid colours. And the descriptive Welsh place-names tell their own story at Blaenafon, Caernarfon and Pontcysyllte.
‘People are at the centre of our vision for the historic environment. Protection and conservation – vital as they are – are not enough alone. Our historic environment shows how people have shaped our local landscapes over millennia in ways that have produced their local character. We need to help people appreciate the historic environment and ‘read the landscape’ – not just the obvious elements such as castles and chapels, but also the pattern of quarries, ancient trackways, field systems and cairns.
‘Nurturing a living sense of what it is to be a citizen of Wales is a key priority for the Assembly Government, and citizenship cannot be a theoretical concept. It is about emotional ties and imagined community, as much with previous generations as with ones to come. Our objective is therefore to help all people in Wales to gain at least some sense of the historic environment in which they live’
The Minister also emphasized the important role that the historic environment has to play in regeneration, he said: ‘Any regeneration scheme should involve conserving and enhancing the built heritage. A contemporary and innovative response to a heritage site can be energizing and beautiful. What is more, regeneration should involve communities in researching their own past and result in exhibitions and public performances, as well as active participation in articulating the character and local relevance of future development.’
The Heritage Minister will be announcing his Strategic Statement for the Historic Environment in the Senedd in September. Building on the substantial progress already made, the priorities will include: Conserving and protecting the historic environment; encourage many more people to appreciate the historic environment and tackling attitudinal barriers which must be supplemented by other ways of switching people on to the historic environment. The final priority area for action is research and scholarship.
