WEST MIDLANDS HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT FORUM
Minutes of the 49th Meeting held on Wednesday 3rd December, 2015 at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham
Veryan Heal (HE) Chair / Apols / Ellen McAdam or Oliver Buckley or Gurminder Kenth (BMT) / EMcüPeter Morgan (HLF) / ü / Philip Belchere (IHBC) / Apols
Caroline Magnus or Michael Fetherston-Dilke (HHA) / Apols / Dawn Griffiths or Hazel McDowall (Natural England) / Apols
Louisa Moore (HE) / ü / John Hunt (CBA) / ü
Rachael Foy (HE) / ü / Keith Jones or Tim Yarnell (Forestry Commission) / TYü
Alex Page or Mark Badger (EHT) / MBü / Gerald Kells (CPRE) / Apols
Aftab Rahman (Legacy WM) / ü / Colin Shrearer (CCT) / CSü
Lucie Oakley (AHF & APT) / ü / Harry Bowell or Matt Doran (NT) / Apols
Jamie McNamara or Wendy Tomlinson (Canal & River Trust) / Apols / Mike Hodder (CIfA) / ü
Caroline Bedell or Roger Stone (CLA) / Apols / George Goodall (WMASA) / ü
Chris Patrick (ALGAO) / ü / Harriet Devlin (CCDF) / ü
Anthony Herbert (Shropshire Gardens Trust) / ü / Matt Dobson (RIBA) / ü
Shane Kelleher (Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust) / ü / Tismena Bashir (HLF) / ü
Item 1: Apologies
· Veryan Heal, Michael Fetherston-Dilke, Jamie McNamara, Caroline Bedell, Philip Belchere, Gerald Kells, Harry Bowell.
Item 2: Minutes of the previous meeting
· LM introduced new HEF members; Legacy West Midlands, RIBA, West Midlands English Heritage Trust and Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.
· The acronym buster and the dates of future meetings have now been distributed.
· MB introduced the English Heritage Trust to members as a new charity which looks after the historic properties with an aim of becoming self-sustainable in the future. EH and HE have the same Chair but are two separate organisations.
· ‘Picturing England’ event with HE’s archivist had seen good attendance.
· MD introduced RIBA, which is involved with the national HEF working with architects for conservation accreditation under two schemes. RIBA is keen to promote local training opportunities to improve architect’s skills.
· SK of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust introduced the organisation, which looks after the world heritage site and leads on the Museum Resilience scheme in the Midlands.
· Manuela Belle from the Prince’s Regeneration Trust will be speaking at the March meeting.
Item 3: Legacy West Midlands and the Handsworth Heritage Trail (Aftab Rahman)
· Legacy West Midlands was formed in 2010 with a shared interest in recording the heritage of post-war migrant communities. The registered charity has undertaken a number of projects with the aid of funding from HLF, HE and other bodies, to research, record and widen the understanding of various aspects of post-war migrant communities, including food, health and wellbeing and gathering oral histories.
· The Handsworth Heritage Tail is a free walk run by volunteers to help widen the understanding of the area’s historical sites. Legacy West Midlands would like to build on the trail by offering it as an induction programme to the city, for new corporate workers coming to Birmingham, tracing the development of the area. AR is hoping to charge for this new phase of the trail and is keen for businesses (particularly those moving corporate headquarters to the city) to see the importance of hiring local people into well-paid jobs in Birmingham.
· Many members congratulated AR for Legacy West Midland’s work and felt it to be a good example of how heritage can make a real contribution to the economy.
Item 4: Heritage Counts (Louisa Moore)
· Heritage Counts 2015 came out on 3 December 2015.
· Action: LM to send copies of the regional Heritage Counts document to HEF members.
· The 2015 theme is caring for local heritage, with research this year focusing on listed building owners.
· The regional document included photos taken by AR of Colin Simms’ row of Georgian terraced houses in Handsworth.
· There is a new e-newsletter with an infographic detailing the West Midland’s results – this will be sent out today.
· Heritage Alliance is holding a launch event on 3 December 2015 for Heritage Counts.
· HD noted a worrying increase in the decreasing funding for heritage and for staffing in particular. This was picked up in the Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12029774/Listed-buildings-at-risk-from-cuts-warns-heritage-watchdog.html in their coverage of the national Heritage Counts document. A number of members agreed with this worry. HE is trying to help where it can and the HE Intelligence team is currently collecting examples of HEFs and HERs in order to publish them online for model comparisons. CS added that the South West HEF is also putting together a study on this topic.
Item 5: Birmingham Heritage Week (Matt Dobson, RIBA)
· Birmingham City Council (BCC) wanted to become more involved with Heritage Open Days and so organised the first Birmingham Heritage Week in September 2015 with lots of events in and around the city centre.
· An evaluation event had found it had worked well and engaged with people with a successful social media campaign. It was felt however that there were not enough partner organisations. MD encouraged members of the HEF to consider participating in the next Heritage Week.
· Action: MD to invite Councillor Waseem Zaffa to the March HEF meeting to discuss Birmingham Heritage Week.
· It was felt it was important to bring the events beyond the city centre and for partners to be involved from an early stage in order to assist with funding and resources.
· HLF had used Birmingham Heritage Week to launch its focus on working with young people.
Item 6: Roundup
Forestry Commission
· Forestry Commission will be splitting into two organisations but unsure when this will take place.
· TY may indicate to the HEF which Forestry Commission sites have heritage assets within them.
The Gardens Trust
· Trust is now in existence.
· Working on the Capability Brown commemorations in 2016; this will centre on Weston Park in the Midlands.
Council for British Archaeology West Midlands
· Encouraged HEF members to visit their website to find out further information about their annual event.
· Small Annual Grant Fund has been launched to help volunteer groups in the Midlands developing their work with local archaeology. Action: JH to send details of the grant fund to LM
Chartered Institute for Archaeologists
· Annual conference will focus on ‘Archaeology in Context’ with the aim of demonstrating the range of areas archaeology is involved with.
· HEF members discussed the issue of whether the heritage profession represents a wide range of people as well as whether a wide range of people are attracted to working in the historic environment. This was discussed and it was felt it is an issue many HEF organisations experience. Action: LM to discuss this further with MH
Churches Conservation Trust
· 345 historic churches across the country and CCT aims to bring them all back into some form of use.
· There is a desire to grow the unrestricted funding but CCT is grateful for the results of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).
· Lloyd Grossman will be stepping down as Chair shortly.
· Recruitment for a Conservation Manager role in the west region is taking place.
· Worcester St Swithin’s – approaching the stage 2 HLF application.
· Evesham and Croome – looking to establish these sites as heritage attractions in their own right.
· Blakenhall, St Luke’s – recently closed. The Victorian Society has raised some concerns about this and this is being worked on in conjunction with HE. Action: LO to pass details of a meeting to discuss St Luke’s to CS
ALGAO
· A number of vacancies were expected but some posts have remained.
· There are concerning gaps in staffing in Birmingham and the Black Country.
RIBA
· RIBA Awards open for entries on 8 December 2015 and close at the beginning of February 2016. Conservation projects in the West Midlands have done well at the Awards over the last few years.
West Midlands MASA
· A decline in conservation and enforcement staffing in local authorities is leading to an issue with enforcing penalties. LM stated HE is concerned about this too but is running Legal Training courses for local authorities in order to help them be aware of their enforcement powers and how HE can help.
BCU
· IHBC Annual School conference will be held in Worcester on 23 – 25 June 2016 with the theme of ‘People Power’, focusing on how communities are integral to the conservation and regeneration of historic places.
· BCU is keen to get other professions interested in heritage.
· Action: RF to add ‘Smithfield Big City Plan’ to the agenda for discussion at the next meeting
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
· Managing the World Heritage site and managing the West Midlands museum development programme.
· Working in partnership with Birmingham University to aid cross-disciplinary research, postgraduate teaching and policy engagement.
UKAPT
· A recent event at Dronfield focused on the risks of taking on a heritage project.
· APT Midlands is based at the Newman Bros. Coffin Works.
· A recent review of governance has led to UKAPT becoming a limited company. UKAPT is considering a new name and is also reviewing its membership categories and rewards once a project has been completed.
· The Architectural Heritage Fund has a new Chair, Liz Peace, and the head office has been moved to Spitalfields.
· The annual review has just been published.
BMT
· Museums that receive some of their funding from local authorities will be impacted heavily following the announcement of a 29% cut in the recent CSR. BMT earns 60% of its annual funds itself and is trying to find new ways to raise the rest of the revenue required.
· Birmingham City Council is looking to refurbish its council offices and, in the wake of this, BMT is hoping to initiate a major refurbishment project at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. BMT recognises that the exhibitions at BMAG currently do not explore Birmingham’s past enough and a refurbishment would look to address this as well as redisplaying the Museum so it is more engaging to modern audiences.
HLF
· The regional staff team is now complete and Vanessa Harbar is the new Head of the HLF in the Midlands.
· New committee members have been appointed and will be announced shortly.
· Carole Souter (Chief Executive) will be moving on and the search for a new CE will begin shortly.
· Strategic Framework 5 will begin soon with a focus on evolution instead of revolution, young people (including the announcement of a new initiative), resilience (a new fund is to be launched with a potential higher limit for applicants) and a third round of Skills for the Future in 2016/17.
West Midlands English Heritage
· The new charity is working well and is on target with visitor figures, especially at Witley Court.
· Works will take place on the Witley Court fountain and there will be a focus on conservation of Boscobel House in 2016.
Historic England
· Veryan Heal has been appointed as the new Planning Director of HE in the West Midlands.
· CSR has resulted in a 10% cut in real terms over four years for HE. HE is currently working on income generation initiatives.
· LM attended a roundtable discussion on the DCMS Culture White Paper on VH’s behalf yesterday.
· Enhanced Advisory Services launched on 12 October 2015. A breakfast briefing was organised with RIBA recently and HE is working on spreading the message about its new enhanced advisory services. https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/our-planning-services/enhanced-advisory-services/
Dates for future meetings:
Thursday 10 March 2016 – Historic England offices, The Axis
Thursday 9 June 2016 – tbc
Thursday 8 September 2016 – tbc
Thursday 8 December 2016 - tbc