Memorandum submitted by East Sussex County
Council
Response from East Sussex County Council in
its role as provider of the following services relating to heritage;
libraries, archives, countryside management, support for the arts,
archaeology and built form design advice.
The day to day management of Conservation Areas
and individual Listed Buildings in East Sussex is the responsibility
of the District and Boroughs and not the County Council except
for Listed Buildings in County Council ownership.
1. INTRODUCTION
This enquiry should concern itself with more
than buildings. We would suggest a broader definition of heritage
to include the documentary (in traditional and modern media),
pictorial, archaeological and artefactual and landscape heritage
as well as the built environment. They are closely interrelated
(eg the built environment cannot be fully interpreted without
access to documentary sources) and should be viewed as a whole.
2. National policies for conservation in
the digital age, to include national initiatives which would maximise
available resources and reduce duplication of effort. A successful,
national project was the digitisation of local newspapers which
was led by the British Library. Similar national initiatives bringing
together Libraries, Archives and Museums could, for example, preserve
glass plate negatives or bring together the disparate photograph
digitisation projects which are proliferating at the moment and
duplicating effort.
3. We can find no evidence of priority given
by the DCMS to the role of Libraries and Archives in conserving
and championing the nation's heritage. English Heritage officers
are now responsible for very large areas which reduces their ability
to be effective locally and to be available to advise and be consulted
on local issues and to contribute to initiatives that could give
heritage a higher profile in the public's awareness.
4. Reference to planning policy again assumes
that heritage means buildings. Interpretation of the built heritage
needs local studies and archive material. Now counties are no
longer planning authorities there can be a divergence in the availability
of expertise in heritage matters including archaeology, to planners.
In a two tier authority, where the Planning remit rests with the
Districts and Boroughs, but other aspects of heritage, such as
archaeology are with the County, this distributed expertise can
affect joined up thinking and disadvantage effective working.
5. Access to our heritage in all its incarnations
is fundamental to engendering a sense of personal identity, place
and community with a resulting pride in the community; maintenance
of community memory; facilitation of formal and informal learning;
provision of access to information as citizens in a democracy;
provision of health and leisure activities; thus improving the
overall quality of life in the community. Heritage is a cultural
asset and it is important to ensure that local and distinctive
characteristics are both conserved and enhanced.
6. On funding priorities for archives we
would refer to the National Council on Archives publication, Giving
Value, which sets out funding priorities for UK Archives 2005-10.
Archives have not had the advantage of funding streams such as
Renaissance in the Regions, which have greatly benefited museums
in recent years. There is need to examine the pros and cons in
relation to an increase in budget to enable English Heritage to
have more local offices or for that funding to go directly to
archives, museums and galleries. Money should not be directed
to the Olympics at the expense of the nation's heritage, which
in any event, the many visitors to the games will want to see
and experience.
7. Legislation in relation to the roles
and responsibilities of Public Archive Offices should be clarified
as should that of Libraries in relation to the conservation and
promotion of local studies materials The DCMS in requiring local
authorities to prepare a comprehensive document to include listed
buildings, conservation areas and sites of archaeological significance
did not recognise that counties, which are often best placed to
do this, are no longer planning authorities.
The staff resources required to maintain the
nation's heritage has been grossly underestimated as the Districts
and Boroughs will need considerable assistance, presumably from
English Heritage, in providing this information in an acceptable
and common format.
8. The term conservation has more than one
interpretation and seems, in this instance to be principally referring
to building conservation. It can also refer to the conservation
of artefacts, records and archives. Whilst posts involved in conservation
continue to be cut it is difficult to attract new recruits to
the profession and insufficient numbers are being trained. The
recruitment of professional archivists is now becoming problematic.
16 January 2006
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