vote of making the huge and famous post-war Alton Estates at Roehampton a conservation area, then lost its nerve and backed off. At the other end of the market, there is concern now over the future of the Barbican, where proposed changes may damage its homogeneity. Nor are these issues always confined to housing. It now seems too late to save the character of the Coventry City Shopping Precinct, another important period ensemble. There, too, listing was ruled out of court but a conservation area with tough Article 4 'powers' might have done the trick. The difficulty of the conservation area solution to such problems is that often, as at Wandsdworth and Coventry, it means asking the local authority to restrain itself. The same council which is pressed to designate a conservation area is exactly the one which, usually in dire economic circumstances, is trying to improve its housing and to maximise its revenue and rents. To propose conservation area status or more stringent powers of enforcement for wholly or partially council-owned property is almost bound to lead to clashes within a local authority, which are likely to be resolved by the relative strength of the departments involved and of the relevant committees. In these circumstances it is worth remembering that English Heritage too has powers of designating conservation areas, although it has never done so. Might this not be the best solution? It would be interesting to have conservation officers' views on this, and on their experience of the Article 4 process. If there is sufficient interest on the whole future of protecting planned housing and other ensembles, would it be worth holding a seminar on the problem, with English Heritage's involvement, to see if consensus can be achieved on the best way forward? As a rider to the above, it is worth adding a note of warning, indeed of alarm, about the future designation of conservation areas. I have said that they are easy to designate as the law stands, and so they are. But a disturbing note is slipped into the latest consultation paper for amendments to the 1971 Town and Country Planning Act (letter from Heritage Sponsorship Division dated 1st September 1989)::• This proposes (para 8) that "designations, variations and cancellations of conservation areas should in future be considered only in the context of the development plan process". In other words, conservation areas will have to be proposed years in advance under a local authority's development plan. This a recipe with threatens to change a flexible, rapid and effective instrument into something blunt and bureaucratic. There is almost no evidence that the designation of conservation areas has proved particularly ''·See also Chris Smith's Notes from the Chair, page 25. Osbert Lancaster's Festival Flats-the LCC immortalised. contentious. Some councils certainly designate more than others. In some places, the designation of small conservation areas or the extension of existing ones has become almost a regular tool of the planning process. In others, almost everything is left to luck. Welwyn Garden City, for instance, is scandalously underprotected given the international fame of that town, while within Greater London Croydon has a particularly poor record. While there is much to be said for the DoE encouraging more even standards of designation from authority to authority, and for designation to be better related to the planning process, the vision of officers having to rack their brains perhaps once a decade for every possible place that just might need to be protected in future in order to stick it into their authorities' decennial development plan is too awful to contemplate. CLEAR GLASS FOR OLD BUILDINGS We specialise in providing period glass for old buildings - both handblown "Antique" and sheet glass. FROMTHEWORLD'S FINEST FOUNDRIES D'ART THE KINGSWOOD CLASSICS ARCHITECTURALLIGHTING & FURNISHINGS.FORUR For further information see our leaflet in this edition's 'Conservation Portfolio' and/or contact us direct: James Hetley & Co Ltd, Beresford Avenue, Wembley, Middlesex HAOlRP Telephone: 01 - 903 4151 Fax: 01- 902 1045 CONTEXT24 CITIES,TOWNS & PARKS ADMIN/STRA T/ON. SALES AND REGISTERED OFFICE KINGSWOOD SERVICES LTD. AMBERMILL, OAKERTHORPE, DERBYSHIRE DES 7LL Telephone: Alfreton (STD code 0773) 834684 Facsimile: Alfreton 0773 520298 Telex: 377106CHACOM G KISE 23
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