It's your heritage

GOD help us if these are our heritage hopes". So went the headline on the Evening Press Diary (March 15), which asked "What is the point of English Heritage?", citing two examples of our work in York.

Both examples implied that we are not doing the job of making sure that the historic environment of England is properly maintained and cared for.

An un-stated assumption was that we should oppose all developments and refuse to allow anything new in our historic city.

Caring for and protecting the historic environment does not imply opposing change. If we did this, our cities would stand still, ossify and die.

Change happens. Change is necessary and desirable. We exist to manage change, so it is achieved in the best possible way.

The people of York have benefited from change over 20 centuries and the city has accepted architectural and historical influences from many sources. The result is a place of unique character where people want to live.

The act of managing and influencing change in such a precious environment is not simple, but our staff have a wealth of knowledge and skills, and decades of experience.

The Castle end of Coppergate has been a gaping hole in the historic fabric of the city since the 1930s. Frankly the present use of the site, as an ugly car park, is offensive and degrading.

Everybody is agreed, including Chris Titley, that the hole should be plugged by something worthy of one of the most historically sensitive historic places in the north of England.

After well-nigh a decade of striving for improvements, we concluded that the proposed plans were of very good quality and would be a positive enhancement of the other civic buildings around Clifford's Tower.

The planning inspector disagreed with us and the city council. He was confident that a modern design of even greater excellence for the hole in the centre of York would emerge in time.

But in the meantime we are all condemned to many more years of an ugly car park.

English Heritage played a consistent, professional, positive role in the debate about Coppergate II. Although our view did not prevail, there is no doubt that the quality of the debate, much of it carried out in these pages, was higher because of our involvement.

The redevelopment of the Barbican is a change which is going to happen, and our concerns are restricted to two issues: the archaeological consequences and the effect on the setting of the city walls.

We discussed in detail the proposals with the applicants and the council, and succeeded in gaining improvements in layout and design. We now believe the historic environment of the city is not diminished.

The development will not, as suggested by Mr Titley, "tower over the ancient city walls" any more than a considerable number of buildings of all ages already do.

Other aspects of the development such as the increased quantity of traffic are for the council to consider.

These two cases demonstrate that an organisation such as English Heritage is sometimes controversial. Everybody has a viewpoint.

Sometimes these viewpoints are different, and in York, they are held passionately and expressed with great skill. This is to be welcomed.

It is only with the involvement and support of the citizens of York that English Heritage can make a difference, and we are very prepared to listen and learn.

York is one of a small number of English cities of supreme importance precisely because of its heritage. In a nutshell, our job is to manage change so that York's cherished townscape is passed on to our children in a better state.

How do we do this every day? We operate in four main areas of work.

1 We are helping to

understand the significance of the historic city by:

Funding the massive amount of archaeological investigation carried out over the years. As a result we have a constantly growing knowledge of the huge settlement mound, many metres thick, which is the Roman, Viking and medieval city lying under the streets of modern York.

Funding research into the effects of the modern flood defences in the city. Do they have the effect of drying out the archaeological deposits under our streets and perhaps causing structural problems for buildings in the city?

Encouraging the council to undertake a capacity study of the historic city in order to understand the point (possibly not very far away) at which development overwhelms the attractiveness of the city, and York begins to lose the very character which makes people want to visit, and to live and work here.

Publishing many volumes on the historic buildings of the city, the most recent being a definitive study of the architecture of our finest building, York Minster.

2 We are helping to secure the future of the city by advising on proposed changes

Coppergate and Barbican are only two of the many dozens of planning applications a year on which we comment.

We apply well-understood principles on change in the historic environment, as developed or approved by the Government.

Most of our advice is technical, relatively straightforward and non-controversial, and we work closely with conservation and archaeological officers in the council.

We become involved in the early stages of major proposals for the city, and steer them so that the importance of the historic townscape and landscape is taken into account.

At the moment we are in frequent dialogue with those responsible for developing plans for the Hungate area and for the large area of land behind the station known as York Central.

3 We are investing in the city by helping to pay, over many years, for the constant work of repairing the city walls, the biggest single historic structure in the city and the one most visited by tourists

English Heritage grant-aids the repair of the medieval and Victorian churches of the city centre (including St Denys, St Olave's, and St Laurence's) and surrounding villages (including the parish churches of Skelton and Dunnington).

We help the Dean and Chapter with the constant work of repairing York Minster and repaired the Cold War bunker in Holgate ready for opening to the public.

York's first railway hotel in Tanner Row house our offices, where we run our operations for the 22 local authority areas in Yorkshire.

4 By treating York as the gateway to historic Yorkshire, we are helping people to enjoy the historic environment of the region

Every year we welcome well over a million visitors to our own staffed and free historic properties in the region, including 145,000 to Clifford's Tower.

This contribution to the tourist economy of York and North Yorkshire is huge. We invite more than 50,000 school children to our properties free of charge and advise others on physical access to historic buildings and monuments.

As a result, the 14th century timber Merchant Adventurers' Hall is now fully accessible on both levels to those with restricted mobility.

Clifford's Tower is even more of a challenge for us and we welcome ideas to increase access for all.

I hope you realise now why we exist.

Dr David Fraser is English Heritage's director for Yorkshire

Updated: 10:01 Tuesday, March 23, 2004