Photo © Richard Moss / Culture24
Three big hitters from the heritage sector have combined to urge the government to use its forthcoming statement on the historic environment to help protect the jobs of local heritage staff.
English Heritage, the Institute of Historic Building Conservation and the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers, say that their recently commissioned report reveals problems that could lead to failures in the care of the UK’s heritage sites.
The report has captured for the first time the actual number of staff supporting local authority historic environment services.
It found that although historic environment services grew by 20% between 2003 and 2006, they dropped by 5% (by 66 conservation and archaeology professionals) between 2006 and 2008.
Although the reduction has not yet caused a failure in local authority services, the report says early signs of staffing problems could lead to failures in the care of heritage sites such as historic parks and gardens, world heritage sites and historic places of worship.
According to the report historic places of worship are one the areas under threat by job cuts. Photo © Richard Moss / Culture24
“We understand that there is financial pressure in all sectors at present, but a lot of conservation duties are not discretionary for local authorities, they are a statutory duty,” said Steven Bee, English Heritage Director of Planning and Development. “Specialist archaeology and conservation staff are the front line of heritage protection in this country and local authorities must recognise this.”
Future studies will provide a figure for the level at which, if such deterioration continues, conservation services would start to fail nationally.
In the meantime the three organisations say they will continue to press the government to issue a statement reaffirming that historic environment services are integral to planning departments and discouraging cuts in historic environment staffing.
The government’s draft Heritage Protection Bill was published in April 2008 but its progress through Parliament was put on hold after the last Queen’s speech in late 2008. Since then the government has promised a new Policy Planning Statement, which will bring together planning policy on all aspects of the historic environment as part of its Heritage Protection Reform programme.
For more details on the ongoing developments in Heritage Protection see the Heritage Protection Reform section of the English Heritage website.
