22 C O N T E X T 1 0 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 IHBC Annual School 2007 IHBC Annual School 2007 IHBC Annual School 2007 any, survives of the medieval period. The Liverpool of today is made up of 18th, 19th and 20th century buildings with some more recent development. There is much within that fabric to celebrate and enjoy: a world heritage site at the waterfront, four scheduled ancient monuments, 10 historic parks and gardens, 34 conservation areas and over 2,400 listed buildings. Liverpool, he declared, is a resurgent city (which was borne out by the tours) and this was its 800th anniversary. Bradley underlined the city council’s commitment to heritage, pointing out how its different values were there to be used for the benefit of the local economy and the community, with heritage a constant source of both pleasure and pride. He noted that on Heritage Open Day, Liverpool had the second highest number of participating heritage buildings in the country. He went on to illustrate the city council’s equal commitment to high-quality new development and the Liverpool Design Initiative’s contribution to those aims. He drew our attention to the magnificent setting of the day’s lectures, St George’s Hall. Recently repaired and restored, it was rightly described by Pevsner as the finest neoclassical building in the UK (if not the world, according to Bradley). He closed by reminding us that Liverpool had beaten tough competition to be heralded as European Capital of Culture for 2008. Let us hope that the many building projects visible all across the city are completed on time. Mike Brown, London Borough of Enfield Policies and partnerships for the historic environment seek to define public value and described three kinds: intrinsic value, instrumental value (which helps deliver education, regeneration and health objectives) and institutional (which helps to establish public trust and confidence). This analysis was echoed by Kate Clark in the next talk. Lamb turned to the local government position. We heard about the local government white paper and its drive to devolve power, the planning white paper’s focus on community engagement (what colour would you like your nuclear power station in?) and the heritage protection white paper’s provisions to make more information available to the public and the consent regime more user-friendly. We were drawn along a well-worn sequence of policy mantras embracing: Balancing protection and bureaucracy; Engagement; Accountability; Transparency; Legitimacy; Empowerment and public Support. (That looks like a Liverpool-flavoured acronym – ed). We turned to the continuing charge, heard too often from some in government, that the heritage is somehow elitist. Lamb encouraged her audience to refute this charge. It is our heritage, it belongs to the whole nation and it is hugely popular. Apparently 96 per cent of Liverpool’s residents acknowledge the importance of heritage, while 70 per cent of the UK’s population has visited a heritage site last year (as, I assume, an attraction). One million Brits participate in Heritage Open Day (more, I would guess, than will ever participate in the Olympics). However, the picture is not all rosy. The surveys reveal that members of the black and ethnic minorities do not visit the heritage to the same extent as others, and there is still a need to broaden and deepen public support. Encouragingly, Deborah Lamb closed this section by entreating her audience to set aside the recent difficult years, avoid being apologists for the heritage and to ‘be more robust’. We were treated to a few examples of how this bold new world might be developing. English Heritage’s Conservation Principles were, we were assured, primarily for internal use, but it was hoped (by English Heritage, I assume) that they would, in time, spread to others. Lamb assured us that English Heritage’s purpose in producing the document was to merely clarify, so that people can understand how it has arrived at any particular point of view. (Those English Heritage inspectors who find themselves unable to support that point of view may find it has a different purpose). We looped back into the heritage protection white paper which, we were told, would widen many of us from conservation officers or inspectors into ‘historic environment specialists’. In this context Lamb voiced her continuing support for last year’s controversial (and now quashed) English Heritage proposal that the IHBC merge with the IFA. But, sensing she was losing her audience, she wisely decided not to pursue the point. Moving swiftly on, we heard about the sterling work of HELM and the efforts to install heritage champions across the country. Deborah Lamb, director of policy and communication, English Heritage Deborah Lamb began by describing the current national position for heritage policy, how access and participation were top priorities for government and how the heritage protection reforms (currently at bill drafting stage) were, in her view, a flagship project with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. (Of course, since her lecture we have a new prime minister, secretary of state and minister, so things may have changed – possibly, given the previous secretary of state’s track record, for the better). Lamb went on to
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