The December newsletter from the Rescue Sidmouth Drill Hall campaign brought up several interesting points, including:
What exactly do we mean by a 'heritage asset'?
Futures Forum: Making the most of your heritage assets
Futures Forum: Community Assets @ Budleigh Salterton
Futures Forum: Locally Listed Heritage Assets: report for East Devon
And clearly the Drill Hall is one such asset:
Futures Forum: Locally Listed Heritage Assets: and deliberate neglect of the Drill Hall
Here is the latest newsletter:
Dear Friends,
December has brought the publication of several important documents
about Heritage and the role it is likely to play in the tourist economy over the
next few years. I have written to Sidmouth Town Councillors to draw their
attention to two of these but I have only just become aware of the third
one.
The first document was released by the Minister for Arts, Tourism
and Heritage, John Glen MP. The others are from Historic England which is the
advisory body on Heritage.
These documents are of great relevance to
Sidmouth and I hope you will find time to go and read them.
Sidmouth has the greatest number of listed
buildings in Devon if Exeter is excluded. At 358 it is far ahead of its closest
rival Tiverton at 290, and almost all of Sidmouth is part of one of the
Conservation Areas. As such, the settings of Heritage Assets and the rules
governing Conservation Areas should have a huge influence on any development in
Sidmouth.
The term Heritage Asset can be misleading, sometimes it is used
to refer to a Listed Building but in other contexts it can mean unlisted
historical buildings or open spaces. The Ham can be seen as a Heritage Asset and
the setting viewed as important in planning terms. This quote from page 2 of the
Historic England document The Setting of Heritage Assets, Historic
Environment Good Practice Advice in Planning gives a definitive meaning to
the term Heritage Asset and makes it clear that it is not meant just to refer to
Designated Heritage Assets which are those which have been
Listed.
Setting is the surroundings in which an asset is experienced, and
may therefore be more extensive than its curtilage. All heritage assets have a
setting, irrespective of the form in which they survive and whether they are
designated or not.
I hope that these documents will give us extra
ammunition when trying to protect the whole of the Sid Valley, and the AONBs and
the World Heritage Site setting.
You are all aware that the Scoping
Exercise results have been delayed past the date when they were intended to be
presentation to both Councils. They are now due to be considered in February.
The Retain-Refurbish-Reuse website has a latest news section and now also contains a set of information
sheets to help us understand most of the issues around Port Royal and possible
redevelopment there.
I am convinced that the way forward for the Drill
Hall is to persuade Sidmouth Town Council to realise how the interest in
Heritage can be used to draw funds to the town to help improve our economy for
the benefit of us all. Funds can only be accessed if the building is restored in
some way and brought back into use, so demolition of the Drill Hall would be
killing a goose with the potential to lay golden eggs for many
years.
Please keep up your efforts to share information with as many
people as possible, a well informed electorate firmly behind their local council
can achieve great things.
Kind regards, Mary |
|
Heritage News and Christmas Greetings
Newsletter Archive - Sidmouth Drill Hall Rescue
Here are some further notes to the above:
The Heritage Statement issued by John Glen, Minister of Arts,
Tourism and Heritage:
> page 14: the role
of specialist Local Authority advisors in maximising 'the benefits of the
heritage in their local area and respond to the needs of local
communities':
'We will
encourage local planning authorities to invest in their custodians of the local
historic environment and to work more closely with Historic England and the
private and voluntary sectors to make better use of the available resources to
identify, protect and maintain the historic buildings and places that matter to
local communities. We will continue to explore opportunities to streamline
heritage consent processes, maintaining the current level of protection for the
historic environment'
> page 15: ‘We will
continue to encourage all parties in the public, private and voluntary sectors
to work together to ensure that conservation areas remain successful and vibrant
historic places that add value to local
communities.’
Storytelling by
‘historical figures’:
> For example: at Cromford Mills in the Derwent Valley, World Heritage Site:
Heritage training courses
leading to long term employment:
> Sidmouth is uniquely placed within Devon to build on
heritage as there are 358 Listed buildings; only Exeter has more in the whole of
Devon:
Conservation Areas:
> The Sid Valley's Conservation Areas are connected to the
Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site: VisitEngland intends to
draw more overseas visitors to the WHSs:
> The Sidmouth sea front should reflect the heritage the town and Valley has to offer - as other coastal towns are doing with success:
> Historic England released another important document this month about
Conservation Areas:
.
.
.
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