Towards a Better Balance between Heritage and Growth #1

An opportunity to hear about this Historic England funded study and discuss its findings and recommendations.

Following the publication of our Historic England-funded Towards a Better Balance between Heritage and Growth report, this event looked at its findings and recommendations in more detail, and what it means for local authority teams, civic societies, Historic England and local people.

The report reviews the challenges of managing development growth in historic towns and cities in England. It is based on interviews with civic societies and local planning authority officers and members in twelve places: Canterbury, Chester, Chichester, Lancaster, Lichfield, Malvern, Oxford, Peterborough, Wakefield, Wells, Winchester and Worcester.

With ongoing cuts to local authority staffing, many civic societies feel frustrated influencing the future of valuable historic towns and cities.  Conservation and planning officers often struggle to prioritise spending time on heritage issues and creating strategies and policies to manage change more effectively in the future, due to almost unmanageable caseloads.

Uniquely this report brings together the views of civic societies, local planning authority officers and councillors to make recommendations about best practice.

The case studies inform more than forty recommendations and a ‘How to…’ Toolkit. This Toolkit is a guide on how to work together for better outcomes through a Local Plan Review process highlighting when different issues should be considered – local character, transport, density, views and building heights – and how local planning authorities can draw on the enthusiasm, knowledge and experience available in civic societies and local volunteers to gather a sound evidence base.

The Executive Summary and full reports can be downloaded here: 

221202_Towards a better Balance_exec summary only

220428_Towards a better Balance_main report

230428_Towards a better Balance_detailed report

Speakers at the January event:

• Welcome and Introduction to the Study, Louise Thomas, Director, Historic Towns and Villages Forum
• Towards a Better Balance between Heritage and Growth, Jane Manning, Director, Allies and Morrison Urban Practitioners, the co-authors of the report with HTVF and ACT
• The Local Listing Process by Peterborough Civic Society, David Turnock, Chairman, Peterborough Civic Society and steering group member of ACT, (Alliance for Cathedral Cities and Historic Towns, a group of civic societies).

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