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The Scottish BAR Register

Jane Nelson (Scottish Civic Trust)

The Scottish Buildings at Risk service is now sixteen years old. It was established after discussions with the former Department of Ancient Monuments, now Historic Scotland, in the context of concern at the number of listed buildings that were in disrepair. Scotland's Endangered Houses by Myers and Binney had drawn attention to 150 examples of significant buildings at risk. Amongst these was Orkney's Hall of Clestrain. This, while it has been restored, sadly remains empty.
    The service was established in 1992 and is operated and managed by Scottish Civic Trust Run on behalf of Historic Scotland. It is funded byan annual support grant of £53,000. Its role is to set up and maintain a database of all historic buildings throughout Scotland, the mainland and the islands, which can be considered to be at risk; to raise public awareness as to their existence;  and to act as a catalyst in encouraging fruitful negotiations between owners and people who may buy and restore buildings at risk.
   The Trust carried out 3,000 surveys during the first two years of operation, and developed a database based both on this evidence and on local authority records. The register covers a wide range of building types, from crofters' cottages to industrial buildings and castles. We want it to work as a vehicle of opportunity, as a means to bring together buildings and their rescuers. It currently contains some 1,300 buildings. The number varies: buildings may be saved and renovated; others may be lost.
  A building at risk as is usually a listed building or a building which lies within a conservation area that meets one or more of the following criteria:

• vacant with no identified new use
• suffering from neglect and or poor maintenance
• suffering from structural problems
• fire-damaged
• unsecured
• open to the elements
• threatened by demolition

Ninety-five percent of the buildings on the registed are vacant. A building may be in good order but at risk because it is threatened with demolition. In most cases the risk factors are obvious. We have included a number of unlisted buildings in the database. To date 3,055 buildings have been recorded. Of these we classify 1,036 buildings as at risk; 883 structures as saved; 263 as demolished; and 606 as requiring investigation. A building will stay on the register even if it has been rescued, until the restoration effort is complete.
   The database is organised geographically, by local authority. This approach has been complicated by boundary changes, but we have a contact in most councils. At this stage these contacts tend to be reactive rather than proactive.

Assessing condition
Condition is usually assessed through a site visit. It solely represents our opinion, and is generally based visual inspection of the exterior (internal access is often not possible).  We make use of nine categories of building status:

• alert
• at risk
• demolished
• for investigation
• new building
• not for register
• restoration in progress
• saved
• scheduled ancient monument

   The database carries photographs of the structure, a brief description, and notes on the reasons for risk, condition and degree of risk, development history, ownership and availability. In placing a new building on the register we follow a sequence of actions: the skeletal record established prior to the site visit is expanded and copied to the owner, Historic Scotland and the planning authority for ratification before the full record is added to the public register. The property information is that publicly held via Registers of Scotland. Inclusion on the Register does not imply criticism of a building owner nor does it give automatic right of access to property. The Right to Roam (established in the LandReform Act) does not allow for access within curtilage.
    Verifying information about a building at risk is often a struggle; generally we send a stamped addressed envelope to the owner! Ownership must be confirmed before details are published.

Problems
The day-to-day running of the service involves continual database management, the implementation of the publication strategy and the process of outreach and marketing. Unfortunately, with present resources the job is simply too big to operae efficiently. The service is further hindered by lack of local authority commitment and thus coverage is patchy. A comprehensive resurvey is needed.
   There is in addition the problem of what we should do about our unlisted vernacular buildings. Five hundred sites await investigation.
   In this context it may not be surprising that there is frequently the perception that the register is merely a hospital list. This reflects the lack of a national strategy for buildings at risk and the lack of finance to address the problem, both centrally and locally, with declining local authority resources. Heritage is not perceived as valuable enough to make it a priority, while councils are reluctant to use their statutory powers. The system has become reactive rather than proactive the view seems increasingly to be that responsibility for threatened buildings lies with the state and charitage non-governmental organisations.
   In Scotland £12M is allocated annually for the repair if historic buildings. Yet it would take five years assuming a 25% repair grant on a £2M project to repair the 112 category A buildings on the register — just 3% of the known buildings at risk. And for the last few years funding levels have been static.
   All this seems odd given the real value of the built heritage to Scotland's economy and culture. We know that in 1998, for instance, twelve million tourists spent £2.5Bn in Scotland. Of these 69% visited heritage attractions and a third gave the heritage as their sole reason for visiting the country. In 2001, according to Visit Scotland, more people visited historic buildings than attended all Scotland's sporting events.
   Updating and maintaining the BAR record has become problematic through lack of resources. Nonetheless the development of the online register has represented a move forward, as has the identification of a discrete funding stream for the project officer. We have a rising number of inquiries, and the web site attracts 2,000 visitors a day. On the marketing side, we have replaced the former annual Bulletin with a series of topic reports and plan an increased level of publication together with a conference. Despite the difficulties we must not lose sight of the aims of the project and despite the national picture of under-resourcing, there have been some notable success stories.

Link

Scottish Civic Trust

Scottish Buildings at Risk register