The Place, Space and Conservation Conference held in Manchester explored the impact of heritage-led regeneration on crime reduction, health and social and community cohesion; and featured speakers from national and local government, funders and agencies, and case studies from throughout the UK from commercial and voluntary sector developers. The following is a brief write up from my conference notes along with a few of my own thoughts (in blue) regarding topics and themes addressed by the speakers during the two day event. If you attended the conference and have any comments or points you’d like to raise please leave a post!

Thursday 13 and Friday 14 November 2008
At The Monastery of St Francis, Gorton Lane, Manchester

Lecture 1 Sue Clifford – Common Ground, www.commonground.org.uk, www.england-in-particular.info

- Detail of Place
- Ordinary places/nowhere special, legislation has limited focus on ordinary places that ‘locals’ consider important.
- Projects need to ask ‘locals’ what is important here to you.
- Maps/arts projects – creation of maps by local people, school and other groups of importance in local area/parish. Getting people to show through artwork what is important to them, (a good project to use when working with local school groups) part of the common ground project.
- Also Alphabets of place – using a letter to indicate what the individual/group thinks are important features (this has been done by some groups in the North of Italy in the Alp region).

How can meaning or significance be placed within legislation?

- Aiding local economy and culture – supporting local skills, maintaining local building types and building techniques
- Also working with the natural environment (ie like HCP rubbish and recycling schools project)

Lecture 2 Jenny Abramsky – (Chair Heritage Lottery Fund), Heritage and Regeneration

Examples;
Blaenavon – local young people aren’t aware of their town’s role in the history of the industrial revolution on a worldwide scale and the importance of the town as a centre for industry etc
At Blaenavon the HLF have provided funding for projects to protect and conserve the fabric of buildings – JA notes that without long term active use these buildings will deteriorate – therefore it is essential to involve the local community in the care of these buildings if their funding is to have been worthwhile.
Oral history projects - Recording the history of communities that are changing
i.e. Bataville – the town here developed around a shoe factory that has now closed. (Apparently) the project recording people’s memories of the town and its origins has given the community hope (how?) as their existence/past has been recorded and their importance recognised in the heritage scene (hmmm????).
- JA notes that this project has linked the modern community with its heritage, and has generated a positive relationship between the two.
- JA also states that for any regeneration strategy to succeed it needs to include heritage and conservation. Consideration of the community’s origins/roots/birth/creation is necessary in order to be successful and achieve longevity in redevelopment.

Re-use of buildings/spaces is noted as important (how can this be achieved for archaeological sites – can it?).

Conservation work should include a training opportunities (for the local community and others).

Cultural tourism – part of a successful economy?
Examples;
Swansea Waterfront Museum
SS Great Britain
- JA noted the above as successful examples where HLF funding has boosted the local economy/created new employment.

Lecture 3 Chris Oldershaw – (Chief Executive), Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Co, can Heritage Power Urban Regeneration?

CO believes that Yes it can but identifies what he believes are the issues that need to be addressed first in order to be successful in this aim, these are;
- overcome negative perceptions of heritage
- create an ‘aspirational’ comprehensive plan
- promote design excellence
- engage the wider community in regeneration

Example
INHERIT International Network of Historic Cities http://www.inheritproject.net/theproject.asp/ - in conjunction with the European Association of Historic Towns and Regions http://www.historic-towns.org/home.asp
(launched 2002)

i.e. The Grainger Town Project, Newcastle Upon Tyne http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/grainger.nsf
- CO noted that there were many empty buildings in the city centre and one of their aims was to tackle this, which they perceived to be a problem.
- One project was that of a ‘community video diary’ – CO says this was very successful.

- An issues CO now faces with his work in Gloucester is a lack of ‘evening economy’, an issue he wishes to tackle with a mix of projects aimed at both the younger and older generation.

- CO believes one of the keys to success is to generate a coherent programme to market the city and to advertise the heritage of the city.

CO also sets out a series of stages he believes are essential to the structuring of large scale heritage led urban regeneration, these are;
- the need to have a set of baseline data of the existing
- an aim of what result is wanted from the project
- a plan of/focus for works
- a business plan including details of how the project will be funded
- a set vision of what you would like to see happen at the end of the project
- a series of check points throughout
- continual public consultation – consideration of what is important to the community
Engagement with the wider community in the above projects is being/was achieve through several activities, including;
- community forums/contact
- urban youth forum, who visited other cities across Europe as part of this project for inspiration and education
- mobile exhibition, informing community of works
- appointment of a community engagement manager
- appointment of a community ambassador
- gaining a commitment from other agencies/bodies to add value
- for example, the police, educational bodies, others in social sector
- consulting these groups on work under way and also challenging them to add further value

Lecture 4 Jamie Coath – (Principal), Purcell Miller Tritton (Architects),The Reinstatement of Place.

Case Study - Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds

- A key issue here was visitor access verses site security

Case Study – Roundhay Park, Leeds
- disused buildings were reinstated to a similar but not identical form as previously, as there was a need to ensure the structures were more robust for modern use.

A key requirement for both of the above projects was the use of memory and familiarity as a driver for the reinstatement of cultural significance to these places.

JC identified the importance of continuity and context in regeneration to encourage a reuse and ensure the long term continuance of use of regenerated structures/places, fitting regeneration activities closely into existing cultures.

Lecture 5 Ian Lush (Chief Executive - Architectural Heritage Fund www.ahfund.org) and Ela Palmer (Ela Palmer Heritage ela@elapalmer.org) – The Social Impacts of Heritage Led Regeneration.

IL and EP note some of the negative impacts common to all regeneration
- stress and pressure
- displacement
- changing communities
- gentrification

IL and EP note that regeneration projects require consistent evaluation, over a long time period – as currently truly comparable data regarding their effects is unavailable – at present limited to anecdotal evidence.
- they believe statistical evidence collection is essential
- evidence should be collected over a long time period as it may take some time for benefits to become apparent

Lecture 6 Dr Alison Cooper – Penryn Townscape Heritage Initiative http://www.carrick.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3077

- the project aims were split between aims to regenerate the area and to reinstate out of use buildings through incentive schemes – however this was not totally successful as it was met with a lack of local enthusiasm, due to lack of cash to make up remaining cost of incentivised works)
- (similar to an incentive scheme in Ercolano – where again uptake was very limited as again cash required to make up remaining cost not available and also an apparent lack of promotion of the incentive scheme)
- one of the prerequisites of this incentive scheme was however that all applications for funding had to prove that the work undertaken would be contributing to sustainable development/improvement works that would result in long term investment/use of a business (Dr AC noted that ‘artspaces’ were not necessarily a favoured option).
- Dr AC also notes that feedback from the community regarding what they feel are the benefits is essential to create a future for these kind of projects and to ensure the future for these heritage assets.

Lecture 7 John Rodger (Blaenavon Project Director) and Dr Peter Wakelin (Secretary RCHAMW) – World Heritage and Regeneration: Lessons from Blaenavon

Brief history Blaenavon
1786 – Establishment of Blaenavon, the town developed around the industrial works

18th C the industrial peak

20th C a rapid decline in industry and population

Building the future on the past
- conference and action from Torfaen LPA to ‘fix’ the area
- aims in 1997 were
- establishment of WHS
- improving the environment for residents
- development of a Blaenavon heritage regeneration strategy
- establish a beginning for improvement

Inscription onto WH List in 2000

Blaenavon is close to Abergavenny (about 10 minutes apart) – Abergavenny is and was a very popular town with loads going on, food festivals etc. Blaenavon town on the other hand was very depressed economically and socially – the economy was non existent; the population was extremely low; people were moving away.

Blaenavon part of a wide landscape with heritage assets/arc externally and internally within the town -  Ercolano is more centralised.

The Blaenavon Partnership – a group led by Torfaen CBC
There are 13 members of this group who all work together to contribute to the effective management of the WHS. – JR and Dr PW say that an effective management structure creating and maintaining partnerships is essential.
The Blaenavon Partnership’s aim and remit are to protect the story of Blaenavon for future generations, but also to promote and oversee cultural tourism to benefit economically from heritage.

i.e The Big Pit Mining Museum – all guides working here are former miners

The day-to-day work of facilitating tourism/visitors and maintaining the sites is carried out by a WHS site warden and by volunteers form the local community.

*The main concern of the partnership was renewal/improvement of the town. In order to achieve this it was necessary to promote the town and sites as places to visit. The first steps taken included;
- ‘building the brand’ to create a consistent image of the town linking it with the surrounding industrial landscape
- instituting the ‘Blaenavon World Heritage Day’ along with a series of other events through the summer, including fireworks displays
JR and Dr PW ask what are the benefits of heritage led regeneration as seen at Blaenavon;
- heritage assets preserved
- improvement of ‘social cohesion’
- development of training schemes – passing on skills
- new jobs
- new business
- increase in property value
- change in perception of the heritage within the local community and also the national and international community

Lecture 8 Paul Squires, Civic Trust and David Habersham Malvern High Street UK – Resident Led High Street Regeneration

www.highstreetuk.org.uk/index.html
www.highstreetmalvern.org.uk
www.mainstreet.org/

Main Street USA forms the basis of a model for this programme – the project has been piloted in Malvern and Brentford

Principles of the project are;
- incremental progress
- change is difficult and should be openly discussed from outset

Problems they wanted to avoid were;
- becoming a team of well meaning individuals rather than an effective group
- overcomplicating their aims
- ‘reinventing the wheel’ as many local community groups were already in existence in Malvern who it was essential to communicate with and build connections with
- becoming politically of self interest driven

Author: Claudine Gerrard, 2009