terest needs to be tempered by awareness that the budget cuts and reductions in maintenance are still going on at local level. The Parks Assessment 2001 report, written by the Urban Parks Forum and partfunded by the HLF, English Heritage, Countryside Agency and the DTLR (published, but only on the web, in June this year) is the first attempt at comprehensive statistical analysis. It affords chilling evidence of continued decline: 82 per cent of the population does not have access to good quality are ominous. All this is despite evidence that historic urban parks attract an estimated 300-400 million visits per year. It is agreed that parks are important and are in trouble. Will the government's eventual package of measures really tackle their problems? The Urban White Paper says that we need to think more "imaginatively" about solutions, and look at "alternative" means of managing parks (which could translate as "cheap"). There is a suspicion that the govparks; 32 per cent of historic urban parks are de- ernment will home in on sexy initiatives such as clining from fair to poor condition; provision of basic visitor facilities like toilets and shelters has declined by over 25 per cent in the last twenty years. For park-buildings enthusiasts, the picture is particularly shocking: 57 per cent of bandstands have been demolished, 70 per cent of icehouses, 29 per cent of grottos, 22 per cent of lodges, 25 per cent of monuments and follies, 27 per cent of ornamental gates and 69 per cent of glasshouses, and the trends RECENTDEVELOPMENTSIN THE LAW trusts, friends groups and private-public financing, and that its evident distrust of the public sector will skew its proposals. In the end, once the fundamental question of resources is recognised, the problem balloons out into the whole question of the relationship between central and local government, and the latter's freedom to raise and spend money as it wishes. How far the government will go in tackling that core issue remains to be seen. Applications: whoneedsto be told CharlesMynorslook at the newrulesandguidancerelatingto notifyingapplicationsfor planningpermissionandlistedbuildingconsentto EnglishHeritage,CABEand the amenitysocieties. Applications for planning permission and listed building consent are almost always decided by local planning authorities, but they are, or should be, influenced in reaching their decisions by the views of those with relevant specialist expertise. It is therefore important that the relevant bodies are made aware of applications as they are received. To that end, there has for many years been an elaborate set of requirements to achieve this. The principal provisions are in the (Listed Buildings) Act, but the details have always been in the form of a direction from the Secretary of State, contained in a departmental circular. The most recent circular, in relation to England, was 14/97; that circular has in effect been cancelled by DETR Circular 01/01 (also DCMS Circular 01/ 01), which was issued on 18 January 2001, and came into force on 19 February 2001. I say "in effect" because the new circular does not formally cancel the whole of the old one, but merely the directions in it. Since, however, the new guidance repeats all the guidance in the old circular, it makes sense only if it is regarded as cancelling the whole thing. In particular, the new circular amends PPG 15 in more or less (but not quite) the same terms as did its predecessor. The new circular also reflects the winding up of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, and the absorption of its functions into English Heritage (see the Authorisation of Works (Listed BuildCONTEXT 72 DECEMBER 2001 ings) (England) Order 2001, which also came into force on 19 February). And it provides a useful, updated address list of heritage bodies (although why are there no websites and email addresses?). The new notification requirements are virtually identical to those which used to apply, save in London; but it is as well to know where they are now to be found. Incidentally, if there are still outstanding any applications made before 19 February 2001, they should continue to be processed in accordance with the old rules, insofar as they differ from the new ones. And, of course, as is almost always the case these days, the new circular does not apply in Wales. Procedure there is thus still governed by the equivalent provisions, more or less similar to those in Circular 14/ 97, in Welsh Office Circular 1198, which amends the principal Welsh Circular, 61 I 96. Finally, a separate announcement has been made as to consultation with CABE (the successor to the RFAC). Applicationsfor planningpermission Notification to English Heritage As before, authorities in England must notify all applications for planning permission to English Heritage where they affect the setting of a listed building of grade II* or grade I. They must also notify it of any planning application affecting the setting of a grade II building in London, where the proposed development is in the curtilage of the buildContacts Urban Parks Fornm, 0118 901 5200 Garden History Society 020 7608 2409 Association of Gardens Trnsts 020 7251 2610 Parks Assessment 2001 can be viewed on www.hlf.org.uk. David Lambert is a freelance writer and researcher on historic parhs and gardens. policy adviser to the Garden History Society, and a member of the Heritage Lottery Fund's Buildings and Land Panel. The views expressed here are his own. 19
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