ment of grants and taxation for the conservation of land, buildings, and the gardens. Mike Pearce LETTERS From Carole Ryan, Regional representative West Midlands Dear Editor, I refer to the letter from Royston Edge, Cheltenham, and David Hayes of Vale Royal in the January 1985 issue of 'Context', the contents of which I found quite astounding. True, the West Midlands ACO did comment at a r·egional meeting that they would like to see ACO, as a body, produce guidance leaflets on the techniques of conservation, with particular regard to the socalled modernisation of cottages, refurbishment of terraces, conversion of farm buildings, etc. This is simply because conservation officers in the region do not feel that they have the time to do so, or to disseminate the leaflets far and wide over the whole country. It is most unfortunate that this became somehow tied in with a quite separate discussion at the same meeting on the standing of individual conservation officers within various councils, the type of work they did, the different emphasis of rural and urban based officers, and the amount of influence such officers had over their committees. The resultant compression of what was in fact a lengthy set of minutes was done, I am sure, in the best interests of editorialship by the newsletter editor who was kind enough to do this for me when I was short of time. I can, however, assure Messrs. Edge and Hayes that a number of my members have considerable qualifications and experience in conservation; I myself have an MA in conservation, and over 10 years experience; but that we do not feel that this has anything whatsoever to do with the power to change things for the better within our respective councils who have differing political persuasions, and to intimate that we thought it did was 9 a gross insult. The only way a professional body will make itself felt is for the parent body to have a well -organised approach to the dissemination of information for educational purposes to the general public (note that I do not say academic information to conservation officers) and well-defined lines of communication with the local authority associations. West Midlands ACO were not discussing the need for conservation officers to read academic papers from ASCHB and suchlike, but the need for members of the public to receive welldefined guidelines on conservation, quite simply because a single conservation officer cannot get round everyone in large rural counties. Of course there is a place for informal discussion; no one as I recall has ever refuted the value of this at both regional and national levelit was what the Association was promoted for in the early days of the Crafts Skill Register when we were all engaged in "finding the best craftsman for the job". I am extremely sorry that Messrs Edge and Hayes misconstrued so dramatically comments made on a very wide-ranging spectrum of topics, which were compressed for ~he sake of brevity. I am also interested in the fact that every time they walk down the street they achieve instant recognition - it must be a very small area! For a massive area like Shropshire such recognition is not possible, neither is it always desirable. Personally I always feel a little anonymity releases me from my Council role and allows me to get behind many a front door to the secreti and mysteries of mediaeval structure which lie beyond. CONSERVATION OF WORKINGDOCK BUILDINGS - A REQUEST FOR HELP Roy Vallis, Conservation Officer for Stroud District Council in Gloucestershire, writes - "Stroud D.C. is preparing a scheme for the designation of Sharpness Docks, Gloucestershire, as a Conservation ~rea. An unhappy degree of loss has taken place al-
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