“The historic environment — more accurately, the historic dimension of the environment — is the sum of the surviving physical changes that people have imposed on the natural landscape. It follows that most of the tangible, physical heritage of Wales is not something set apart from everyday life. Rather, it is the ever-changing framework into which we were born or in which we have settled, and that we will in turn modify and pass on to future generations.”

> Recommendations
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Over its first four years the Welsh Assembly Government has taken an imaginative and creative approach t towards planning and design. With limited resources, but a minister who has had a clear vision of what needed to be done, the Assembly has reformed planning policy, launched a Design Commission, and ensured that the new Planning Act will enable a distinctively Welsh approach to changes in the planning system. Throughout it has worked with, rather than against, stakeholders in the public, private and voluntary sectors.
  Shortly before politicians went into purdah for the election campaign, consultation was announced on a key area of public policy. The Assembly had seemed to lag behind its partners in Scotland and England in developing a fresh approach to the historic environment, and its relationship to culture, design, education and planning for sustainable communities. The publication in March of the imaginatively titled Review of the historic environment in Wales shows that Sue Essex and her colleagues fully intend to adopt a fresh approach.
  Since the Assembly’s inception in 1999 the Trust has argued that a distinctive approach to historic and cultural factors in the environment has to be embedded in Welsh planning policy. We have linked this to the empowerment of people and communities through education in the built environment as a key to civic pride and civic action. We have pointed to the symbiosis between conservation of the historic environment (in the larger sense, not just that which has statutory protection), urban design, and design quality. We were to the fore in calling not only for a Welsh Design Commission, but also for the Assembly to put forward an effective champion for the historic environment in Wales. And we have used About Wales to point to initiatives in Scotland and England that have begun to integrate a fresh understanding of the historic environment with wider social and cultural policy. In England, particularly, the Power of place report (see About Wales, January 2001) and the government response, Force for the future) (AW, January 2002) recognised the relationships between landscape, history, people and places and indicated a commitment to the historic environment within the wider renewal of cities, towns and communities.
  The present Review is the sequel to a conference at Cwmaman last July, led by Sue Essex.
  With the theme of the historic environment as an “asset for the future” speakers and participants emphasised the relationships between environment, culture and society, and called for a recognition of the historic environment as a holistic construct. The consultation document has been drafted by a small team led by Paul Loveluck, following meetings with key individuals and organisations.
Its importance is such that final conclusions on the quinquennial reviews of Cadw and the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments have been held back pending the outcomes of this review of the context within which these institutions operate.
  The Review’s authors are challenging in redefining the idea of the historic environment – and their conclusions offer a genuine opportunity to democratise the cultural heritage.
  If the whole landscape is of cultural value and meaning to people, present and future, our system of designation (listed buildings, scheduled monuments and conservation areas) is not adequate to its protection and sustainable management. A system that respects our values and our sense of place should start from the general, not from the particular. Moreover, as things stand, the system of designation is top-down and expert-led. It attaches greater value to archaeological remains and buildings in rural or small market town contexts where the pre-industrial heritage continues to be visible than to the built heritage of nineteenth-century and later urban communities – not least in the Valleys – and as a result it fails to respond to community values.
  The authors’ approach is consistent with that of the European Landscape Convention (2000; so far unratified by the UK government) and is exemplified by the LANDMAP methodology that enables all aspects of landscape, including cultural associations and bottom-up perceptions of value, to be mapped and used in management systems. Thus, the “idea of the historic environment” focuses on the links between landscape (“an area, perceived by people”) and community, and on recognition that people both shape landscapes and are shaped by them. The historic environment is the foundation of cultural identity and distinctiveness as well as a unique source of information about the past and its inhabitants.
   We are on familiar territory with the document’s analysis of the potential of the historic environment. This section of the Review reflects the widespread realisation that conservation, at the same time as it preserves cultural assets, can deliver a plethora of social and economic goods. In fostering a sense of ownership, conservation contributes to community cohesion; while the refurbishment and re-use of historic buildings and streetscapes adds value and quality to regeneration initiatives and, whether on the large or the small scale, can trigger further investment. Last, but not least, well-conserved places and landscapes are naturally attractive to tourists.
  

Recommendations
On the basis of this analysis the Review argues that “both the thrust of policy and the organisational structure need to be realigned and strengthened to realise the full social and economic benefits which the historic environment in Wales can deliver.”
  This is backed up by the bold proposal that the nature, values and significance of the historic environment need to be understood in a way that can be relevant to “all planning and land use decisions, not just those affecting specifically designated heritage sites and their immediate setting.”
  The detailed recommendations range widely over the issues of information management and access; the recording of the heritage; community participation; education; and the respective roles of local authorities, the voluntary sector and local government, together with the implications for regeneration and tourism bodies. In the course of the discussion, the Review addresses many of the problems identified by contributors to the quinquennial reviews of Cadw and the RCAHM, but the broader nature of its remit enables its answers to these to be bolder and more creative.
  The report notes the fragmentation of record-keeping and recording, and argues for systems and strategies that focus on the need to relate the collection of and access to data to the need to manage the historic environment at the community level. With responsibilities currently divided (and overlapping) – involving Cadw, the National Museum, the archaeological trusts and a host of other organisations – this is an urgent requirement.
   A proper information base is necessary if communities are to be empowered to articulate the values they recognise in the local heritage, and if the historic environment is to be properly seen as a factor in broader community initiatives. It is pointed out that for many agencies charged with spending public money the historic environment has been mistakenly perceived as a minority or an élite interest. Above all, the Communities First initiative fails to recognise the significance of the historic environment and its role in building pride of place. Meanwhile the lack of information is most acute in the case of larger urban communities – the places where most of us in Wales live – where the built fabric is primarily later nineteenth century or after.
  Likewise, the report argues that there are local authorities in Wales that have little interest in conservation, or the social and economic potential of the historic environment; this is reflected in their allocation of resources. Mechanisms need to be found to address this failure of perception and to ensure that appreciation and management of the historic environment is embedded both in the new community strategies and planning policies. The lack of conservation skills within local government is also recognised to stem from a failure to find central funding that can address this gap. At the same time there needs to be an initiative that can enable technical advice and guidance suited to the Welsh context to be developed to support the work of conservation officers.
  The Review points to the potential for both formal and informal education to develop understanding of the historic environment and conservation needs. It notes that the National Curriculum is far more interested in the natural environment than it is in the historic. Cadw is unable to resource an education officer. There is the potential for creative partnerships to enable schools to engage children in the historic environment and to develop lifelong learning initiatives, building, for instance, on programmes such as European Heritage Days.
  European Heritage Days, managed by the Trust on behalf of Cadw, is a voluntary sector initiative, and the report is strongly supportive of the work of the diversity of voluntary sector groups, not least the Trust and its associated civic societies, in raising awareness and practical projects. Central government needs to support the voluntary sector effectively:
  “Maintaining and expanding private investment and voluntary help for the heritage is essential if resources are to be adequate to achieve the inclusive approach which is now required in managing the environment. It is important to look positively at ways of harnessing and encouraging this support and energy, including the leadership required from the centre.”
  Finally, the review echoes the Trust’s call for the Assembly to identify a champion for the historic environment in Wales. It reflects concern that the Assembly has not clearly articulated its concern for the conservation and enhancement of the historic environment or its relationship to wider policy. There is a need for a unified cultural policy statement that makes good this defect and establish a framework for strategic action:
  “Conserving, using, and facilitating intellectual access to the historic environment in Wales needs to be seen as a cross-cutting theme throughout the work of the Assembly and its Assembly Sponsored Public Bodies.”
  The report considers several options through which government machinery could be strengthened to provide a new champion for the historic environment, “clear leadership and improved co-ordination between all the players.” It favours an advisory body to support the Assembly, chaired by a minister, that would provide the vision and the strategy, promote research, co-ordinate the agencies and “help raise public awareness of the value of the historic environment to a similar level to that of the natural dimension.”

Evaluation
This slim summary does not do justice to a report that, in its soft spoken way, identifies where the present system is failing, sometimes very badly, and sets out a coherent means of redress. The Review deserves a thoughtful and detailed response. While it does not map out the organisational changes that are possible, and which the Assembly will have to think through, its overall conclusions and recommendations are hard to ignore, even if matching resources to need is likely to follow from organisational efficiencies rather than from a new cash injection. There is genuine vision here; a vision that truly responds to the anxieties of community bodies and professionals.
  This is not to say that there are aspects that cannot be queried, or matters on which more emphasis could be placed. The importance of green space and the public realm is acknowledged, but left as an undeveloped theme. Reference to character analysis and the need for this to respond to community values opens up a theoretical and methodological minefield: cultural values within communities tend to be diverse rather than uniform, and consensus is hard to grasp. Landscapes may be defined by human perception, but this implies shifting and subjective judgements, just as “expert views” reflect changing academic assumptions about significance. And there is always the danger, inherent in the heritage industry, that in the end our narratives will be fabricated rather than rooted in real history.
  By shifting the emphasis to managing places, which is implicit in this report, we may in the end avoid the urge to identify universal truths. Perhaps there is something to be learned from urban designers who have stressed “legibility” and “meaning” and made the attempt to recognise and act on human perception and experience in analysing and shaping our towns and cities.

Matthew Griffiths

Info
The report can be downloaded from www.cadw.wales.gov.uk; hard copies can be ordered from Cadw, Crown Building, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ. Responses are required by 20 June 2003.

mg 19/05/03