1st Edition
Engaging with Heritage and Historic Environment Policy Agency, Interpretation and Implementation
A comprehensive review of policy and practice in the historic environment, this book exposes the tensions, challenges and difficulties faced by the heritage sector at a time of political volatility.
This collection comes at a key moment for planning policy in the historic environment of England. The papers reflect a wide range of views and experience in the practical environment of policy and implementation. Contributors give perspectives on both policy and practice from legal counsel to local authorities, from the country’s largest NGO to the museums sector. Some conclusions are controversial, providing an important insight into the operation of national and local government.
The thrust of the volume is the need to close the gap between research and policy production. Written when the UK government’s White Paper, Planning for the Future (August 2020), was in preparation, the chapters explore the implementation of policy, its unexpected and unanticipated outcomes and the enduring legacies of guidance and established practice. It highlights tensions within the sector and the need for collaboration and partnership. This book is the most recent and comprehensive review of how the heritage sector has evolved and draws special attention to the importance of the historic environment, not just in planning policy but for the country as a whole.
The chapters in this book were originally published in The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice.
Introduction: Engaging with Policy in England - Agency, Interpretation and Implementation
Hana Morel and Michael Dawson
1. Power of Place - Heritage Policy at the Start of the New Millennium
Kate Clark
2. Principles into Policy: Assessing the Impact of Conservation Principles in Local Planning Policy
Gill Chitty and Claire Smith
3. The Disconnect between Heritage Law and Policy: How Did We Get Here and Where are We Going?
Nigel Hewitson
4. Heritage Assets: Decision Making in the Real World
Peter Goatley and Nina Pindham
5. It’s Not Mitigation! Policy and Practice in Development-Led Archaeology in England
Roger Thomas
6. Borderlands: Rethinking Archaeological Research Frameworks
Paul Belford
7. Archaeology, Conservation and Enhancement: The Role of Viability in the UK Planning System
Dan Phillips
8. For Everyone?: Finding a Clearer Role for Heritage in Public Policy-making
Georgina Holmes-Skelton
9. Always on the Receiving End? Reflections on Archaeology, Museums and Policy
Gail Boyle
10. Historic Environment Policy: The View from a Planning Department
Chris Patrick
11. The Heritage-creation Process and Attempts to Protect Buildings of the Recent Past: The Case of Birmingham Central Library
Matt Belcher, Michael Short and Mark Tewdwr-Jones
12. Pathways to Engagement: The Natural and Historic Environment in England
Hana Morel and Victoria Bankes Price
Biography
Hana Morel is an archaeologist and heritage practitioner, currently working as Senior Policy Advisor (Climate Change) for Historic England. Previously, she worked as Research Associate at University College London where she led the AHRC-funded Heritage Priority Area project, ‘Opening Pathways across Heritage Research, Policy and Practice’, on the need to engage with government policy on regional, national and international levels and support the contribution which heritage research can make to public policy and heritage-related policy.
Michael Dawson is archaeologist and heritage consultant, Director of Heritage at RPS. Author of several books including the recent Heritage Under Pressure (2019). His research interests lie in the application of conservation policy and he is editor of the journal Historic Environment Policy and Practice and a panel lecturer at the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education.
