Civic societies should watch out for the opportunity to have their say in the Assembly's forthcoming review of historic environment policy, planned for the new year. With a bit of luck, its outcomes could represent a major shift in government thinking, with the historic environment claiming a place at the heart of policies for sustainability, inclusion and the regeneration of communities.
    The Trust has argued forcefully that the Assembly should discover a role as a "champion for the built environment in Wales, with support for environmental education and promotion of the built heritage as key components of vibrant and sustainable future communities" [link]. We put this theme to the fore in our contribution to the quinquennial review of Cadw, and we are delighted that Environment Minister Sue Essex is planning a consultation programme that will foreground these issues in the same way that the influential Power of place report achieved in England.
    Across Offa's Dyke the first "state of the historic environment" report has been presented to government [link]. This is the kind of audit that Wales badly needs, but which our own government agencies are as yet ill-prepared to produce. Government in England has also recognised the links between understanding of the historic environment, civic pride and social and economic regeneration. These issues should be at the centre of the Welsh review. And we think that civic societies, as champions of the local historic environment in Wales, should play a full part.

HE policy and Cadw's quinquennial review
In large measure this initiative is the key outcome of the quinquennial review of Cadw that has been underway this year. Our principle submission to this review was that no final view of Cadw's place within the government apparatus in Wales should be taken pending a wholesale review of historic environment policy. Ours was by no means the only voice making this call, and it was therefore significant that in July 2002 Sue Essex called a major conference on the historic environment of Wales and that in the aftermath of the conference she appointed advisers to put together a brief for a major consultation on the historic environment. The Assembly's Environment, Planning and Transport committee (4 December 2002) has been told that while Cadw has performed well since the mid 1990s against the targets set for it, its remit and targets need a thorough review to reflect better "its current strategies and functions and the main policies and key themes of the Assembly". Further work on the quinquennial review, and ultimate conclusions as to Cadw's status and structure, has been postposed pending the planned consultation on historic environment policy.
   It is likely that the consultation paper will foreground key issues raised by respondents to the review and discussions at the summer historic environment conference. These are likely to include:

• how we define the "historic environment"
• how we can raise understanding of the historic environment through education
• links between the historic environment, regeneration and civic pride
• the historic environment as a cultural asset
• skills and resources gaps
• cultural diversity, inclusion and access
• the need for an audit of the historic environment in Wales.

The Trust will want especially to emphasise the role of civic societies, and to stress the links between education and community identity; the role of character/context analysis in planning and design; and the relationship between historic environment education and the wider theme of built environment education. There is cause for satisfaction that our messages about the lack of awareness of the historic and built environment in Wales, the significance of HE policy to wider sustainability issues, and the potential for the Assembly to act as a champion for the historic and built environment, are becoming common currency.

3/12/02