8 C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 Periodically InCornerstone, the newsletter of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (Vol 30, No 1, 2009), Philip Venning addresses a concern identified by the Victorian Society in the last Periodically column about the role of listed building casework, and its cost to the statutory amenity societies. He asks if the SPAB is actually making a difference, and wonders if the society should ‘ignore’ the good local authorities, to concentrate on those without conservation officers where their expertise might be more useful.This presupposes that such expertise carries compelling weight even in those authorities with specialist staff. Venning goes on to state that ‘none of the players in this elaborate and costly system of consultation actually know how effective any of them are’. This is to be the subject of some joint research with English Heritage, where local authorities will be required to indicate the final decision in listed building cases. But the research will need to be very carefully framed to deal with the qualitative as well as the quantitative aspects of the outcomes if the results are not to prove inconsequential. In addition, one suspects that none of this will address the post-approval, compliance and quality assurance (or enforcement) aspects so crucial when schemes are implemented. It is ironic that Matthew Slocombe reports that more than one cash‑strapped council has started charging for discharging condition on listed building consents, despite this not being legitimate under section 16 of Circular 04/08.The government’s wording is slightly ambiguous, but where a fee has been levied and the practice has been challenged, local authority legal departments have instructed that the payment should be refunded. The issue publishes a number of letters criticising home information packs and energy performance certificates, and the confusion between the two. Anyone looking for ammunition about the harmful impact of these ill-conceived measures for historic buildings will find it in this issue. Gillian Darley examines the case of a fine Victorian font at Draycott in the diocese of Bath andWells that could set a drastic precedent for the sale of fixtures and fittings to raise funds for historic churches. She reports on the recent proceedings at the Court of Arches (which declared that the sale would be unacceptable).The font, designed by William Burges, was the subject of an anonymous offer to buy it for £100,000 with funding of £10,000 for a cast copy replacement.This would have solved the parish’s apparent financial problems at a stroke. Fixtures and fittings remain a vexed issue in the secular system, and this article will be useful for anyone interested in the parallel aspects of fixtures in the ecclesiastical system. In the same issue Alan Powers explains the bonds between the society and the ArtWorkers Guild, now celebrating its 125th anniversary, and the important role played byWilliam Morris to both. The latest edition of the Association of Preservation Technology Bulletin (Vol 49, No 1, 2009) covers a wide range of topics.These include climate change and sustainable conservation, insulation in mid-20th century American houses, high-tech, large-scale laser cleaning techniques, and injection grouting on the Villa Medicis in Rome. A special feature is an article by May Cassar who discusses the challenges of heritage conservation and sustainability in the 21st century. Focusing on climate change, which she describes as the greatest challenge of our time, she analyses strategies that have been used in the past to confront this problem. She calls for an alignment of conservation practices with sustainability principles. The article is a good summary, with particular reference to the UK problems of our large legacy of pre-war, energy inefficient housing, the potential effects of the Climate Change Levy, and the evaluation by English Heritage of the contribution of the historic environment to environmental sustainability. One of her examples is a 19th century stucco-fronted house in a conservation area in Camden, referred to as the ‘Low-Energy Victorian House’, where a reduction in carbon emissions of 82 per cent has been achieved. In the same vein, but looking back to the first half of the 20th century, Joanna Dowling provides a historical overview of the thermal insulation industry in the USA. She examines the four main insulation types (rigid or semi-rigid, fill, blanket or batt, and reflective surface) arguing that these developments in American housing construction industry were evidence of wider social and technical trends. This is illustrated by amusing and dramatic product adverts of the period. Another article discusses the use of lasers as an innovative cleaning option for large architectural structures. Andrzej Dajnowski, Adam Jenkins and Andrew Lins use case studies to illustrate what they identify as an excellent cleaning option for many architectural projects. There were significant benefits in terms
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