ACO BRANCH NEWS chip and a magic eye. The merits of riven rather than sawn timber are also worthy of consideration, particularly where the trees are grown close and straight. Keith Wilson took us through a useful hierarchy of repairs from traditional techniques to resins and finally Martin McNamara expounded the virtues of infill panels ancient and modern. More detailed notes will be available in due course and will be announced in the next issue. With delegation of the publicity function to this Branch, a small subcommittee has been set up and with its members kicking its co-ordinater to kick them into kicking him into kicking them into action, something should happen, sometime. Rumour has it that the most active member will be the one with the most sophisticated desk-top publishing system and best typping skils (sic)*. Inevitably, our recent Branch meetings have focused on the four conservation consultation papers, whilst the vexed question of institute status has also worn out a few brain cells with many members warning that the issue should not be clouded by the administrative headaches of a growing membership. Pleas to the eastern bits of the West Midlands have also borne fruit and by the time this issue has been published we will have met in Leamington Spa whose Georgian elegance should prove a fascinating contrast to the Shropshire vernacular that we had tended to become accustomed to - not and I repeat NOT that there's anything wrong with that. Next year's local conference will be aimed at brickwork. *P.S. there are rwo hidden messages here. D. Burton-Pye NORTH WEST BRANCH Two events have taken place over the summer. The first was a repeat visit from Stephen Johnson (Director of Northern Region) of English Heritage at the end of June to St. George's Hall in Liverpool to talk about the CLAGUE Vacancy for a CONSERVATION ARCHITECT Our Conservation Section has specialised in the care (and sensitive adaptation) of historic buildings for many years. Mainly medium sized projects to Churches and Historic Houses. We would like to hear from anyone interested in joining our friendly team of 15 people based in Canterbury. A Conservation qualification would be an advantage. 38 Apply with CV to Andrew C Clague RIBA 62 Burgate Canterbury Kent CTJ 2HJ implications of the consultation paper on Conservation Area Partnership Schemes. This was a joint meeting with the members of the Planning and Environment Committee of the Metropolitan Planning Officers' Society. Stephen Johnson also gave a very useful and informative summary of 'needs assessment' and its application to grant aid for listed buildings. The purpose of the Partnership Scheme will already be well known but some Conservation Officers pointed out that authorities were slashing conservation budgets. It was indicated that English Heritage would not enforce a requirement of a specific local authority conservation contribution. There were unrecognised budgets which contributed to conservation objectives, for example, tourism. Housing or highway budgets may contain programmes which English Heritage may recognise and assist with grant aid. On needs assessment, there were three tests for Church and Secular buildings. Grade I or II* buildings would usually be eligible for Section 3A grant unless there had been recent bad alterations. The urgency of repairs and the need for public money were the other two considerations. Church grants depended on the commitment and enthusiasm of the congregation, the perception of the church in the neighbourhood, and the priori ties of the PCC between repair and reordering. The aim of grant was to keep the building in use as a place of worship and this would depend of local fund raising to attract grant. There were two categories of secular buildings: historic estates and any other building. The grant was aimed to retain the historic entity or total environment; if the estate were sold would it be a loss to the nation 1 English Heritage gauges the costs involved in a ten-year programme of repairs for all the buildings, examines the estate accounts and looks at the cost gap between the two. Some estates are so well endowed that no grant is necessary. For others only garden buildings and structures need help. Those with no endowment will require assistance to the main building on a sliding scale related to liabilities and assets similar to the Cathedral grant scheme. For any other building, market valuation and cost of repair are examined. For a highvalue property with relatively low cost of repair, the owner should bear the whole cost. The price paid for a recently acquired property should reflect the cost of repair to a satisfactory condition; grant would only be payable where the repair costs exceeded the market value in its restored state. English Heritage has to account for public money and only bridges the funding gap. Buildings without a use or a low-key use owned by voluntary bodies may attract grant at more than 40%. However, those which relate to the function of a large organisation, such as railway stations or town halls, are increasingly likely to receive little or no grant aid. English Heritage had looked at loan schemes but these would be very expensive to administer and would requlfe a large number of financial assessors. In addition, English Heritage would need to be licensed by FIMBRA to give financial advice. After discussion on problem buildings it was thought that it would be useful if English Heritage could give wrttten advice to the ACO on needs assessment. This would enable better advice on grant assistance to be given locally and weed out potential schemes with no hope of grant assistance. The second meeting was arranged by Peter de Figuerido from Chester. It was intended for local builders and building professionals as well as Conservation Officers and was held at Tattenhall in Cheshire. It covered Traditional Repair Techniques and was similar in scope and hands-on experience to the Annual School at Weymouth. Participants had the opportunity to explore, inter alia, the different qualities of lime wash, distemper, and lead-based paints; repainting with hydraulic lime; pressing daub into a practice panel of wattles; and, creating interesting (and not very craftsmanlike) tooling marks or carving graffiti on blocks of sandstone. It is intended that a seminar on the law and practice relating to listed buildings and conservation areas should be held 111 Manchester early in the New Year. Graham Arnold CONTEXT 40
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