Watchdog urges more action to safeguard historic sites

English planning authorities have been urged to do more to safeguard historically important sites and buildings after English Heritage (EH) revealed that one in twelve of the 70,000 examples currently protected are at risk because of neglect, decay or inappropriate change.

The heritage watchdog has called for councils to:

• ensure they have adequate conservation staff
• publish their own Heritage at Risk registers
• provide EH with information on conservation areas and Grade ll listed buildings
• serve more Repairs and Urgent Works Notices
• protect registered battlefields as conservation areas

That request came as the watchdog published its latest and most comprehensive Heritage at Risk register, a 'Domesday Book' of threatened parts of England's urban and rural areas.

This indicated that the following are at high risk: one in five scheduled monuments; one in five registered battlefields ; one in five protected wreck sites ; one in 14 registered parks, gardens and landscapes; one in 30 Grade l and ll* buildings; and one in 40 Grade ll buildings in London.

Lord Bruce -Lockhart, chairman of English Heritage, said: "We will be working closely with local authorities, encouraging them to use the Heritage at Risk register to prioritise their own resources.

"They need to make sure that have adequate conservation staff and that everyone in the council considers the heritage implications of their actions, for example when planning to close a Victorian hospital or school."

Dr Simon Thurley, chief executive of EH, used the launch of the register to highlight the threat to battlefields, citing current plans for a major residential scheme at an English Civil War battlefield site at Newbury.

Read the English Heritage press release.

Roger Milne

10 July 2008