Minutes of the first Heritage Link AGM
Held at Wilton’s Music Hall, 1 Grace’s Alley, Wellclose Square, London E1 8JB
On Thursday 12 December 2002, at 11am
Present
See attached list of attendees. Representatives of around 103 organisations attended the
AGM.
Apologies were received from:
Jack Lohman
Museum of London
Sophia Lambert
Defra
Mark Pemberton
EH
Taryn Nixon
MoLAS
Peter Mimpriss
Allen & Overy
Richard Allan
MP
Nick Harvey
MP
Primrose Wilson
UAHS
The Earl of Leicester
HHA
Edward Impey
Director of Research and Standards, EH
Oliver Pearcey
EH
Harrison
Manx National Heritage
Robin Buchanan-Dunlop
The Goldsmiths' Company
Sam Mullins
Director, London's Transport Museum
Scottish Redundant Churches Trust
Jane Howells
British Association for Local History
Jo Turvey
Corporate Affairs Assistant, YHA (England & Wales) Ltd
Michael Hamilton
Laing's Charitable Trust
Anne Blanchard
Administrator of The Grocers' Charity
Francis Carnwath
Tom Flood
BTCV Chief Executive
Peter Nixon
National Trust
Frances MacLeod
DCMS
Clare Pillman
DCMS
Baroness Buscombe
Conservative Party
Sir Patrick Cormack
MP
Lord Redesdale
Liberal Democratic Party
Dai Morgan-Evans
Society of Antiquaries
and others.
1. Official opening
Fiona Reynolds, Director General of the National Trust, opened the meeting by
reminding members of the genesis of Heritage Link, saying that it was an organisation
that had grown from a realisation within the historic environment sector of the need to
unite and work together on issues of common concern. Fiona said that she had presided
over the inaugural meeting of Heritage Link a year previously at which the decision to go
ahead and form the organisation had been taken. She added that the National Trust had
nurtured the organisation during the embryonic stages of its development and that the
Chairman, Marcus Binney, and the Director, Christopher Catling, had then taken over the
helm, working together to establish a legal and constitutional basis for the organisation’s
work. Now, the organisation was ready to stand on its own, and for the National Trust to
play a lower profile role, whilst still maintaining a very strong interest in the organisation,
which she hoped would go from strength to strength and become a force for real and
lasting change in the political and public understanding of the historic environment.
The Chairman, Marcus Binney thanked Fiona Reynolds for her message of goodwill and
wished her well at the seminar to which she was now going at No 10 Downing Street to
debate the Government’s new Food and Farming strategy.
2. Trustees
The Chairman began the formal part of the meeting by asking members to vote on the
membership of the Board of Trustees.
The following candidates (listed in alphabetical order) had been nominated prior to the
meeting:
Tony Burton
Director of Policy and Strategy, The National Trust
Proposed by George Lambrick and seconded by Philip Venning
Jennifer Freeman
Director of the Historic Chapels Trust
Proposed by Marcus Binney and seconded by Christopher Catling
Honor Gay
Head of People and Wildlife, The Wildlife Trusts
Proposed by Nic Durston and seconded by Pippa Langford
George Lambrick
Director of the Council for British Archaeology
Proposed by Francis Pryor and seconded by Dai Morgan-Evans
John Sell
Convenor of the Joint Committee of the National Amenity Societies
Proposed by Marcus Binney and seconded by Christopher Catling
Philip Venning
Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
Proposed by Marcus Binney and seconded by Christopher Catling
Richard Wilkin
Director of the Historic Houses Association
Proposed by Donald Insell and seconded by John Sell
As the Constitution allowed for up to twelve trustees and only seven had been nominated,
it was proposed that the seven trustees be elected en bloc. The Chairman called for a
show of hands, and the seven trustees were elected unanimously, with no votes against
and no abstentions.
3. Governance
The Chairman then asked members to debate the question of whether Heritage Link
should be run by a broad democracy embracing all the members, or by a smaller steering
group or management committee.
Philip Venning opened the debate by saying that William Morris had always been keen
that ordinary people should be involved in the conservation movement, and be given the
chance to express their views, for by such means he believed the true strength of
people’s love of the heritage would be evident. The movement’s great strength is its
diversity: government sees that as a weakness, but we can draw strength from that
diversity, provided that it is channeled effectively. Heritage Link must be seen as a body
that speaks for all of us, so we should adopt the democratic route, try and make it work,
and only think again if it fails.
Judy Ling Wong agreed and said that it was vital that Heritage Link reflected the views
of different parts of the membership, so that it was not dominated by groups with the
capacity to devote staff time and resources to standing for committees.
Gillian Mawrey asked how dissent would be handled – was there provision in the
constitution for taking decisions in the face of disagreement. Pippa Longford explained
how Wildlife and Countryside Link operated under the principal of positive sign on. This
required members to declare their support for major policy statements so that the ‘sign
on’ (the list of organizations backing the statement) could be taken as a true indication of
the support for that policy. George Lambrick said that the CBA, as a member of Wildlife
and Countryside Link, found that a very effective way of working and proposed that
Heritage Link adopt the same approach.
The Chairman pointed out that Heritage Link was already operating under that basis, and
would in any case not pursue any line of policy that involved dissent, since the purpose of
Heritage Link was to find the common ground that united all members. Nevertheless, it
was encouraging that members felt this was the right way for Heritage Link to operate.
The issue was then put to the vote, and there was unanimous support for the idea that
Heritage Link should operate as a broad-based confederation, with every organisation
having an equal voice, though members would be given the opportunity to opt out of
formal policy decisions, and to be seen to have opted out.
4. Membership fees
The Chairman invited members to discuss the issue of membership fees. Martin Bacon
opened the debate by saying that organisations should demonstrate their support for
Heritage Link by putting something on the table – even if only a small amount. English
Heritage had agreed to provide substantial sums from the Heritage Grant Fund over the
next three years to help Heritage Link establish itself, provided that Heritage Link could
generate matching funds. If Heritage Link was something that we all believed in, the
surely the membership ought to make a small contribution.
George Lambrick said that many of Heritage Link’s members already paid a subscription
to the CBA. He thought they would be concerned at having to pay a subscription to
another organisation with a similar function – paying twice over, as it were.
John Sell said it was important to get the sum right from the start: perhaps starting with a
subscription of £100, rather than the £50 proposed, so that the fee did not have to be
doubled or tripled in a year’s time. Debbie Dance said that many voluntary organisations
would find it difficult to pay £100 and that would exclude them from participating in the
work of Heritage Link. Was it possible to make donations in kind, and would English
Heritage allow voluntary help to be counted as a form of match funding?
Sally Embree explained that the current Heritage Grant Fund rules do not allow this, but
that the rules were under review and it was something that English Heritage might well
consider. Robert Morley proposed that the fee should be set at £100 and that the Director
should be empowered to negotiate a higher or lower amount with individual member
organisations.
A vote was taken on this issue and the proposal was carried by a substantial majority,
with around eighty votes in favour and around twenty votes against.
Various people then asked whether individuals could be become affiliate members of
Heritage Link for a lower fee. Thomas Coke suggested a fee of £50, and Vanessa
Marshall suggested £20. George Lambrick suggested that this was a distraction from
Heritage Link’s core purpose, and would add unnecessarily to the burden of running
Heritage Link. John Sell agreed and said that heritage Link was a body made up of
national non-governmental organisations, and to dilute this concept was to dissipate the
energy of Heritage Link.
A vote was taken at this point and it was decided unanimously that individuals would be
allowed to subscribe to the Update for an annual fee of £20, on a one-year trial basis.
Those who chose to pay this would be known as subscribers, not members, and they
would have no voting rights nor would Heritge Link engage in any correspondence with
them.
5. Working Groups
By way of background to this issue, Christopher Catling explained that he had attempted
during 2002 to convene working groups on inclusion, funding and planning, but that the
members had shown very little appetite for these. Some members had suggested it was
premature to look at any issues in detail until an attempt had been made to map all the
issues of concern to members, and then decide which were of greatest priority. Members
were therefore asked to debate whether or not to undertake a fundamental review, and if
so whether or not to continue with efforts to establish the other three working groups.
Martin Bacon said that he was very much in favour of the review and that he hoped it
would be an opportunity to identify issues of magnitude that everyone could unite behind,
and that were relevant to the daily lives of all people. He said that he favoured direct
campaigning action, and that we needed to act sooner rather than later to produce a
manifesto or plan of action with clear messages and clear projects that all members would
buy into.
John Sell said that he would be reluctant to see Heritage Link lose sight of the three
issues identified at the inaugural meeting last November as the basis for working groups.
Perhaps the problem was that all three were being looked after elsewhere and what was
needed was for members to think in terms of pursuing the issues through the medium of
Heritage Link. For example, the Power of Place Tax Group would be strengthened by the
injection of new members and fresh thinking as a result of taking on the Heritage Link
funding portfolio.
Judy Ling Wong suggested that the secret was to find lead organisations that would adopt
one of the working groups and make them work – but the motivation had to come from
members themselves, and not from the Secretariat. If members did not want working
groups, then they shouldn’t be forced.
Martin Bacon said he was concerned that working groups would have nothing new to
say, and that Heritage Link would simply fail to appeal to the wider world. Instead of the
same old messages, we need ideas that would ‘light people’s fire’, and signal that the
sector is alive and wants to change the world. David Lambert agreed and said that Power
of Place had already identified that the sector was too remote, and that the heritage has an
chronic image problem.
Various delegates made the point that research, PR, campaigning and press relations
would be vital to the success of the organisation, and that one of Heritage Link’s tasks
would be to demonstrate and promote the value of heritage, and ensure that it was seen as
accessible and not elitist.
No vote was taken on this issue but the Chairman summed up by saying that there was a
consensus for not abandoning the three existing working groups, and that the Director
would contact members to identify lead bodies for each of the three issues. (Subsequent
to the meeting, it was agreed that the Power of Place Tax Group would lead on Funding,
the National Trust would lead on Planning and the Black Environment Network would
work with the Association for Heritage Interpretation on Inclusion.) On the question of a
fundamental review the Chairman said that a proposal would be put to the members for
talking this forward – perhaps by means of a seminar or workshop.
At 12.30pm, the Chairman declared the formal part of the meeting to be at an end.
Members were invited to share a buffet lunch, served in the theatre restaurant, and to
reconvene in the theatre auditorium for speeches at 1pm.
Speeches
At 1pm, Flora Smith, Director of the Broomhill Opera, the organisation that manages
Wiltons Music Hall, gave a brief outline of the building’s history.
George Lambrick of the CBA and John Sell of the Joint Committee of the National
Amenity Societies then spoke briefly to welcome the formation of Heritage Link –
unreservedly in the case of the Joint Committee, though George Lambrick felt there was
a danger of ‘a plethora of umbrella bodies’, and that members needed to decide whether
Heritage Link was to be the sector’s policy conduit, or whether it’s role was to help
members speak to government.
Alexander Stewart, standing in for Arts Minister Baroness Blackstone (who was unable
to attend because she was required to chair the committee stages of the Licensed
Premises Bill) said that DCMS saw Heritage Link as a means for the sector to pool
energy and resources and allow one single voice to be heard, so as to influence the way
that government managed the historic environment.
Sir Neil Cossons, Chairman of Heritage Link, said that the answer to George’s question
was ‘both’. Heritage Link was ‘an umbrella of umbrellas’ and the creation of a body that
could speak with authority for the whole of the historic environment sector was critical to
the sector’s future health and well-being. If Heritage Link succeeds, and we must all
work to ensure that it does, we could look back on this day in years to come as the most
significant outcome of the Power of Place and Force for Our Future initiatives. The
debates that have taken place today bode well for the future because they show a
willingness on the part of the everyone to work together for the good of the heritage, not
just the parts they happened to represent. Sir Neil ended by signalling English Heritage’s
firm commitment to this enterprise by offering a birthday gift in the shape of a grant of
£138,000.
Charles Nunneley, Chairman of the National Trust, reiterated the message that Heritage
Link was about working together not to promote our own particular interests, but for the
public good. Heritage Link members can and will continue to speak for themselves on
many important matters, but Heritage Link provides an additional mechanism for finding
the common ground and articulating it effectively – something we have not done well up
to now.
Marcus Binney, the Chairman, closed the formal part of the launch by saying that
Heritage Link was an alliance like that of the Greek city states at the time of the battle of
Marathon. The National Trust is like Athens – highly prestigious, civilised and
comparatively rich. The archaeologists are perhaps like the Spartans – highly professional
and disciplined. Smaller members, though less well-trained, nevertheless have energy and
specific skills, and are just as committed to our shared ideals as the bigger entities.
Together we make a formidable team as we face the many challenges of the year ahead.
There being no other business, the meeting concluded.
Heritage Link
15 December 2002
Present:
Martin Bacon
Nina Frentrop
Jane Kennedy
Catherine Cullis
Christopher Stell
Robin Phillips
Gillian Mawrey
Stephen Trow
Mark Jones
Civic Trust
Civic Trust
Cathedral Architects Association
Churches Conservation Trust
Chapels Society
Chapels Society
Historic Gardens Foundation
EH
CLA
David Thackray
Peter Longman
David Gaimster and on other
Dr Simon Thurley
Robert Bargery
Fred Taggart
Catherine Croft
Cela Selley
Nicola Richardson
Peter Hinton
Jonathan Thompson
Tom Hassall
Roger Clarke
National Trust
Theatres Trust
DCMS, Cultural Property Unit
EH
Georgian Group
Regeneration Through Heritage, The Prince's
Foundation
Director of Planning and Development, English
Heritage
The Baroness Buscombe
Inland Waterways Association
Chair, ALGAO
HHA
Secreatriat, Historic Farm Buildings Forum
Head of Learning and Interpretation, The National
Trust
Twentieth Century Society
Twentieth Century Society
Administrator, APT
Director, Institute of Field Archaeologists
Director, AHF
ICOMOS-UK
Chief Executive of YHA (England & Wales) Ltd
John Sell
Judith Cligman
Judy Ling Wong OBE
Henry Adomako
Gerard Wheeldon
Arabella Saker
Helen Wilkinson
Jez Reeve
Rob Morley
Eddie Booth
Dr Vanessa C Marshall
Rose Horspool
Norman Hudson
Frances Garnham
Giles Waterfield
Joint Committee
Director of Policy & Research HLF
Director BEN
Policy and Partnerships Officer, BEN
DCMS
Allen & Overy
Museums Association
English Heritage
Vice President, BTCV
IHBC Chairman
Director, National Preservation Office
Association for Heritage Interpretation
HHA
HHA
Attingham Trust
Carole Souter
Peta Buscombe
Roger Squires
Ken Smith
Richard Wilkin
Peter Gaskell
Laura Hetherington
Sir Patrick Cormack
Matthew Saunders
Deborah Dance
Rowena Scrimshaw
Peter Mitchell
Timothy Cantell
Sally Embree
John Fidler
Brian Ayers
John Walker
Sir Edward Greenwell
MP
AMS
Secretary of the Oxford Preservation Trust
Architecture and Historic Environment Division,
DCMS
Executive Director, The Industrial Trust
Project Coordinator, Maintain our Heritage
EH
EH
SCAUM
SCAUM
President, Country Land & Business Association
Rosemary Ransome Wallis
Lesley Leader
James Blott
The Goldsmiths' Company
The Goldsmiths' Company
Director of Historic Churches Preservation Trust
Patrick Lepper
Elizabeth Robertson
Historic Churches Preservation Trust
Senior Policy Manager, English Tourism Council
Roland Jeffery
Bettina Harden
Tom Lloyd
Development Director, Shoreditch Town Hall
Trust
Chairman, Welsh Historic Gardens Trust
Chairman, Historic Buildings Council for Wales
Ilynn Masson
DCMS
Dr Ian Dungavell
Sir Neil Cossons
Thomas Cocke
Georgina Nayler
Neil Sinden
Tom Boulton
Nic Durston
Jane Kennedy
Stephen Scammell
Stephen Bowler
Director, The Victorian Society
Chairman, English Heritage
Chief Executive, NADFAS
The Pilgrim Trust
Director of Policy, CPRE
National Trust
Groundwork UK
Secretary, Cathedral Architects Association
Chartered Quantity Surveyors
Council for the Care of Churches / Cathedrals
Fabric Commission
Heritage Committee Secretary, The Mercers'
Company
IFA
Director, Whitechapel Bell Foundry
World Monuments Fund in Britain
The Leche Trust
Harris Lindsay Works of Art
???
Georgian Group
Cathedral & Church Buildings Division
Heritage of London Trust
Heritage of London Trust
Phoenix Trust
Glenis Bateson
Alison Taylor
Alan Hughes
Colin Amery
Louisa Lawson
Jonathan Harris
Frank Kelsall
Charles Thomson
Stephen Bowler
Julian Spicer
Diana Beattie
Jill Channer
George Lambrick
Don Henson
Rowan Whimster
David Alderton
Professor Angus Buchanan,
CBA
CBA
EH
Association of Industrial Archaeologists
President, Association of Industrial Archaeologists
Michael Bone
Chairman, Association of Industrial Archaeologists
Paul Bramhill
Merlin Waterson
Malcolm Kimber
Roger France
Geoff Brandwood
Adam Wilkinson
Clare Pilman
Alex Stewart
Frances MacLeod
Roger Thomas
David Lambert
Brian Lofthouse
Daniel Golberg
Urban Parks Forum
National Trust
Cherished Land
Conservation Course Director's Forum
Victorian Society
SAVE
DCMS
DCMS
DCMS
English Heritage
Garden History Society
Historic Chapels Trust
Historic Chapels Trust