care for their churches. l urge everyone concerned about this issue to study the Department of the Environment paper and the excellent Report of the Faculty Jurisdiction Commission, The Continuing Care of Churches and Cathedrals (CID Publishing £6.50, ISBN 07151 35~5 8) and send their com~ents to the Department of the Environment by 31st July, 1984. David McLaughlin, Bath Letters Dear Editor, I attended the AGMin Oxford last month and voted against the increased subscription. Comments were made by the elected officers about using the increased subscriptions to enable the AGMto be held in London and that a future role of ACO should be to produce 'working papers'. By your own statistics (newsletter No.l) London Borough members 14%, Scottish members 14%, rest of England members 66%; the next AGMcould justifiably be held in Edinburgh. Please do not let us become another national organisation run by ,,a south east mafia! Get it out into the provinces, that is where our members are. We all belong to professional and other organisations (with their AGM's inevitably in London), which produce more than enough working papers than the majority of us find time to read. It would be of greater benefit to the whole membership if ACO produced fact sheets for the general public, and presented a united and coordinated voice to Central Government (P.M. and Patrick Jenkin) the HBMC, the ADC etc. on specific matters of the moment. We are neither a learned society nor a professional institute, but a collection of individuals suffering more than anything else from isolation and lack of simple authorative public back up for our collective aim of protecting and enhancing our historic towns and cities. So please do not waste our money on expensive London accommodation (our rates are less in the Midlands!) or ~n dupli- -(5cated, quasi-professional drafts for our Ph.D's, or even a bulled-up newsletter; but rather keep in touch with the majority of the membership, produce simple statements for the public and central government's consumption and leave the newsletter in its present, simple, easily read and pleasant format (congratulations), keep concentrating on its content not on its appearance. Yours sincerely William S. Scott Conservation Officer City of Worcester. MAGNET _JOINERY Following the ACO AGM at Oxford a few months ago, Roger Suddards, t~ solicitor author 6f the well-known book on historic buildings law, wrote to say how interested he was in helping the ACO to campaign at source over specific problems and in particular over works affecting the character of unlisted buildings in conservation areas.His attention had been drawn to the difficulties in controlling DIY improvements to these buildings by the use of offthe-shelf "jungle wood" doors and "noddy" windows. Roger actually knows the chairman of Magnet Joinery, Philip Duxbury extremely well and he would be willing to take up the conservation cause to Magnet if the ACO could provide material upon which to base i'I case.If there are any ACO members who can supply detailed information of atrocities in Maqr:et materials or who would be willing to suggest ways by which Magnet could provide more appropri~ -ately detailed standard joinery or issue a "planning health warning" with their products, then could they please contact John Fidler who is coordinating the ACO response to Roger's suggestion. (36,Ravenscourt Rd.,London W6).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=