Two Coventry Society committee members (Tim Brown and John Prevc) recently attended the first of a series of ‘City Talks’ organised by Design Midlands. It is celebrating its new base at the EH Smith Design Centre in Digbeth in Birmingham – Design : Midlands Design Review Panels.
The title of the talk is relevant for us in Coventry. We have 18 conservation areas – the majority of which do not have an up-to-date management plan and there is a lack of public and private investment. They ought to be a jewel in the crown of the city but are not! So, has the designation of our conservation areas stifled development?
The ‘talk’ consisted of a conversation between three panellists – Ralph Minott (formerly masterplanning and development director of Calthorpe Estates) who focussed on the Edgbaston Conservation Area and was the main speaker, Rachel Fletcher who is senior heritage consultant at Donald Insall Associates, and Sophie Drury who is an Associate Director at Carney Sweeney Planning Consultants.
The session briefly covered the history of conservation starting with the protection of important architectural and historic building in the late 19th century led by leading figures such as William Morris and the formation of the National Trust in 1895.
Post-second world war and with the growth of modernist architecture and planning, and the redevelopment of cities, there was growing concern with the loss of neighbourhoods which did not have buildings worthy of listing but made a significant contribution to the built environment. This eventually resulted in the Civic Amenities Act, 1967, which enabled councils to designate conservation areas. There are now over 10,000 conservation areas in England.
Ralph Minott argued that the Calthorpe Estate (which has been owned by the same family for over 300 years: Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe) has as one of its primary aims the conservation of the area and its many listed buildings. He stressed that it made ‘business-sense’ for the Estate to conserve and enhance the area as investors and users valued this aspect.
Nevertheless, the estate must continue to change in response to the real estate market requirements. For example, some office space is no longer fit for purpose for the 2020s, and there are changes in the housing market.
He, therefore, highlighted five points:
- Importance of collaboration between landowners, developers and local authorities to resolve the conflict between conservation and changes in the property markets
- The role of major landowners in conservation areas in taking a proactive role in the future of neighbourhoods
- Most crucially, delays in the development process caused by, for example, design scrutiny of proposed schemes, pre-application stages in the development management system, negotiations over section 106 agreements which can add over 12 months to the timeline, and the lengthy process of modifying conservation area boundaries – these led to developers, funders and future users reappraising their involvement resulting in a potential loss of investment in the area
- Call for a debate on the deregulation of some parts of the planning system especially where there is a major long-standing landowner
- Provocatively, he concluded that listed building controls ought to be the centre piece of conservation and he wondered whether a debate on the future of conservation areas was needed.
The subsequent discussion emphasised a number of key points:
- Uniqueness of the Calthorpe Estates and its ownerships and listed buildings
- Diversity of conservation areas
- Consensus that well-managed conservation areas involving partnership working between many stakeholders can attract external investment and make a significant contribution to the economic and social value of an area
- Reality of the challenges faced by councils in recruiting and retaining skilled staff that contributes to delays in the planning process
- Concerns over the future of conservation areas where there is little or no investment leading to vacant and deteriorating properties – solutions might include use of commuted sums from section 106 agreements, and neighbourhood planning involving local communities.
In relation to the event title, ‘do conservation areas stifle development?’, the overall view was that this a complex and subjective question. It depends, for example, on the specifics of each conservation area and the pressures from an ever-changing property market.