WEST MIDLANDS HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT FORUM
Minutes of the 36th Meeting held on Thursday 27th September 2012
at National Trust’s offices in The Custard Factory, Birmingham
Tim Johnston – (EH) CHAIR
Reyahn King (HLF), Vanessa Harbar
(HLF)
Michael Fethersone-Dilke(HHA)
Chris Rice (BMT)
TJ 
Apols
Rebecca Speight, Matt Doran (NT)
Wendy Tomlinson (Canal & River Trust)
MD 
Apols
MFD 
CR 
Mike Hodder (IFA)
Donna Taverner or Roger Stone (CLA)
RS 
Philip Belchere (IHBC)
Elaine Willett (Natural England)
John Hunt (CBA)
Keith Jones or Tim Yarell (Forrestry
Commission)
Gerald Kells or Jerry Birkbeck
(CPRE)
Gabriella Misuriello (CCT)
Apols
George Goodall (WMASA)
Chris Patrick (ALGAO)
Louisa Moore (EH)
Amanda Smith (EH)
GG 
CP 
LM 
Apols
JB 
Elizabeth Perkins (UKAPT Midlands)
EP 
Apols
Harriet Devlin (Ironbridge Institute)
HD 
Apols
Item 1: Administration

Apologies (see above) were noted

Minutes of the previous meeting (June 2012) were noted.

Matters arising from the minutes:
o Ian Babty has been appointed Industrial Heritage at Risk
Support Officer, based at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
(ian.babty@ironbridge.org.uk)
o Dame Helen Ghosh has been appointed Director General of the
National Trust, she was previously permanent secretary at the
Home Office.
o Telford & Wrekin Council will not fill the vacant World Heritage
Site Co-ordinator post, although there is a possibility this will be
picked up by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.
Item 2: Heritage at Risk
Dr Sarah Lewis, Historic Environment Adviser at English Heritage West
Midlands gave a presentation on the HAR programme, which explained the
ways risk are defined and reported on plans to expand the Register to include
grade II listed building. During the ensuing discussion, members talked about
ways of engaging younger volunteers for various projects.
Item 3: Heritage Counts

A draft West Midlands summary has been circulated to the HEF for
comment. Action: ALL to provide any final feedback to LM by
close of play on Monday, 1st October 2012.

Heritage Counts 2012 and accompanying research will be launched
nationally on Wednesday, 21st November. There may be funds
available for local dissemination events (similar to those held in
2011/12), although this is yet to be confirmed and will depend on the
wishes of local HEFs. ALL: to consider possible local Heritage
Counts events, for discussion at the next meeting.
Item 4: Legislative, political and planning developments

EH held several workshops, on the Government’s consultation on
Improvements to Listed Building Consents, in order to inform a
response supported by the sector as a whole.

The response, and notes from the seminar are available on the EH
web site: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/consultationimprovements-lbc/

DCMSs’ ‘response to the responses’ is expected any day. Action: LM
to circulate DCMS response when it becomes available.

Following a cabinet reshuffle, Maria Miller has become Secretary of
State for Culture, Media & Sport; Ed Vaisey is now Minister for Culture
& Heritage and John Penrose has returned to the backbench.

Eric Pickles has remained in post at CLG and his recent statement of
6th September concerning housing & growth (available here:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/statements/regeneration/2211838) is
likely to have an impact on the historic environment. Elements include:
o plans to dispose of more public land for uses including housing
via the Growing Places Fund;
o a £570million Get Britain Building fund;
o financial incentives for first time home buyers who purchase new
build;
o plans for legislation to allow applications to be decided by the
Planning Inspectorate: “if the local authority has a track record of
consistently poor performance in the speed or quality of its
decisions”;
o plans for legislation that would allow developers to set aside
Section 106 agreements for three years in order to facilitate
development;
o consultation on changes to increase existing permitted
development rights for extensions to homes and business
premises in non protected areas for a three-year period.

The Government have also announced core funding for Local
Enterprise Partnerships http://www.communities.gov.uk/statements/regeneration/lepfunding.
Members discussed the difficulties in engaging with LEPs. Action:
ALL to feed any intelligence concerning member organisations’
contact with LEPs to LM.
Item 5: Round up

BMT – the new trust (which merged BM&AG and ThinkTank is now in
place); CR is currently undertaking a round of picture buying. Action:
CR to invite the new Trust’s Director to a future meeting of the
HEF.

ALGAO – staffing levels in local authorities evened out, although
Warwickshire has less county archaeology provision following the
retirement of the County Archaeologist. Birmingham Archaeology has
been closed down despite large-scale projects, for which payment was
made in advance, being incomplete.

UKAPT/BCT – EP will be leaving the BCT to take up the post of project
manager at Ditherington Flax Mill.

Ironbridge Institute – the Green Deal poses a serious threat to the
historic environment in relation to its compulsion for landlords to install
insulation; SPAB is holding a one day seminar in Birmingham on 30th
October which members are urged to attend. SAVE Britain’s Heritage
have recently won a judicial review on the Pathfinder programme,
which has found that £35million was used to illegally demolish
buildings in the north-east. EH has recently published the first five
volumes of a ten book series Practical Conservation. A strategic stone
study database recently completed by Minerals UK is an invaluable
resource:
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/mines/stones/eh_project.html.

HHA - there are plans to improve the Association’s web site, and then
to develop apps for smart-phones and tablet computers.

CLA – recruitment for a rural surveyor is underway:
http://www.cla.org.uk/In_Your_Area/Midlands/Regional_News/CLA/CL
A_Regions/1011411.htm/

WMASA – library closures are having a detrimental impact of people
seeking to access information about the historic environment and
planning issues.

NT – Dame Helen Ghosh has been appointed Director-General. The
HLF have awarded £1million for work at Croome Court. Work is
currently underway around several key performance indicators that
seek to determine how enjoyable visits to NT properties are, and
whether volunteers would recommend volunteering to others.

CPRE – Andrew Motion is the newly appointed President; Steve Price
is now Deputy Chair of the West Midlands branch. Several campaigns
around HS2, wind turbines and solar farms are underway. An NPPF
workshop for volunteers is being planned.

EH – the National Planning & Conservation department is currently
being restructured, some vacant posts may be advertised externally in
due course.
Item 6: Any Other Business – none
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, 6th December 2012 at English
Heritage’s offices in the Axis.