Understanding Conservation Management Plans
Historic Landscape Project – Southeast
Understanding Conservation Management Plans
Relating Understanding of CMPs to the Work of CGTs
Having grasped the principles of working with significance and the structure of CMPs, there are various ways of applying this knowledge; here are a few suggestions. There will be many more!
- Volunteer on behalf of your CGT to participate in the next CMP / Parkland Plan consultation with NE, EH etc
It is important that there are constructive views fed into the CMP/Parkland Plan process. CGTs are in an excellent position to support these plans through attending meetings, reading drafts, visiting the place. Your opinion is especially useful as you are a knowledgeable but usually relatively impartial party!
- Start to include statements of significance in your research reports
Having looked at the kind of information now being added to the EH Register entries, try to develop a succinct statement of significance for places that you research. This will be very helpful to those using your research in the future, for all kinds of purposes. This will also help to identify those places which are vulnerable to a loss of significance – if this includes parkland, it is these sites we want to target for NE’s stewardship funding so you could contact your local NE team.
- Articulate significance when making the case for local listing of a landscape
Having developed such statements for places that you have researched, these can be particularly useful when considering whether a place has relevance to criteria for local listing. The significance should demonstrate the place’s worth and make the case for local listing. We need to be clear what is significant about a site that makes it important at a local level.
- Talk to your Conservation Committee about using CMPs and significance in addressing planning issues, especially with PPS5
Previously in Planning Policy Statement 5 (PPS5), and now the National Planning Policy Framework there is an explicit expectation that developers or those wishing to make material changes to a place, must describe the significance of heritage assets affected by development and demonstrate that they have considered issues of impact on the significance of the affected place (see NPPF Section 12). Talk to your CGT committee about the changing ideas on significance and look at some applications for which developers are supposed to have carried out this assessment of significance. Do you think they have done so adequately? You have the right to speak to a planning officer if not and request further information or further study be carried out. You can look at aspects of the potential impact of development both from the perspective of the overall site and particular areas or features of the site – what effect do the proposals have on the values and therefore significance of the landscape? Is a lost feature (e.g. clump of trees, avenue, eyecatcher) of such importance in the landscape that consideration should be given to its restoration?
- Pinpoint what is important to convey about a site in visits, research reports, leaflets etc
Education and researched information can have a greater impact if the key ‘hooks’ of a site, what makes it special, are drawn out – ie why should people care about this landscape? If you are preparing reports, leaflets etc about places, then the key points that you will want to convey are those that are most significant. You can use this methodology.
Historic Landscape Project Southeast May 2012