Getting the past in shape for the future

MADDY Jago doesn't know York that well, she admits.

She's been here a couple of months in her new job as English Heritage's regional director for planning and development - and she's still at the stage of being star struck.

"I've been out and about, just enjoying the ambience," she says, holding her hands out and giving a little twirl in appreciation of the city around her.

She's not entirely a newcomer to York. Her sister lives here, and she's had family here for 25 years. She also, a long time ago, spent six years working as a farm advisor in East Yorkshire.

But question her about the future of Terry's of York, or why English Heritage supported the Coppergate II development near Clifford's Tower, and she looks disconcertingly blank.

That is a little worrying, given that as English Heritage's planning and development director for the whole of Yorkshire and the Humberside, it is her job to protect the region's finest historic assets from overdevelopment.

How can she do that, if she doesn't know anything about them?

She is still, she apologises, finding her feet - both in her new job and her new city.

She is not as concerned as she might be about her lack of local knowledge, however, because she has a team of about 30 English Heritage experts working under her - people who do know the region and what makes it special. "I'm quite excited by the quality of the staff that work for the organisation, and their commitment."

That's precisely the kind of thing you might expect a new boss, who is not entirely sure of her territory, to say.

Those concerned for the future of York and North Yorkshire as the pressure for development continues to grow, however, should take heart from her track record.

It was under her stewardship - as head of the New Forest Committee - that, last March, the New Forest became England's eighth and youngest National Park.

It is a status that, she says proudly, guarantees the forest's future, protecting a unique habitat and landscape from intensive farming and over-development.

It was a victory that was not easily won. It came after years of campaigning and a seven-month inquiry. Many local farmers were fiercely opposed, fearing further government interference in their lives - as was the New Forest Commoners Defence Association.

There were even some local authorities that were not too thrilled. "It (the forest) still has a fiercely independent spirit," she says diplomatically, managing to refrain from talking about the need to bang a few heads together.

"There were people - communities, organisations and individuals - who were very concerned about a National Park entailing loss of control of their own destiny."

She clearly developed considerable diplomatic skills during her ten years in the New Forest - although, still the diplomat, she doesn't put it quite like that. She developed a "good understanding of the way local authorities work" she says, and of the complexities of trying to marry together different priorities and different agendas to achieve an overall aim.

They are skills that could come in very useful in the difficult job ahead of her.

Her role, she says, will be to help formulate an overall strategy whereby English Heritage, working in partnership with local authorities and conservation groups, can exert its influence to best effect to protect Yorkshire and the Humber's "historic environment" - its listed buildings, ancient monuments and unique landscapes.

Her background is mainly in rural conservation. But while she may not be an expert on historic buildings - or on York, for that matter - she does know that if you want to preserve something valuable, you can't do it in a piecemeal way, bit by bit. She says you have to look at the wider picture. "I'm very keen on structures, frameworks, so that everybody understands where they are going together."

She looks a little shocked, therefore, when it is pointed out that York never even got around to adopting a local plan. It is hard not to suspect there may be a bit of diplomatic head-banging in store in York in the near future.

For now, however, her immediate priority is the Yorkshire and Humber Plan, she says - a broad-brush development brief by the Yorkshire & Humber Assembly which will shape the future of the whole region from Sheffield to Hull.

The draft plan went out to consultation on January 16, and those interested have until April 13 to make comments.

Conservation need not necessarily be seen as a constraint, she stresses - it can be an opportunity, too. That said, it will be English Heritage's job as a statutory agency to ensure that preservation of the historic environment is well up the agenda in the plan.

Then will come the detail. At the next level down from the Yorkshire and Humber Plan - which also goes under the catchy title of the Regional Spatial Strategy - will come the Local Development Framework, a replacement for the local plan York never had. That will set out more locally a framework for the future development of York.

English Heritage will expect to continue to be fully consulted over that, she says - and, at an even more local level, with protecting local conservation areas, and commenting on individual development plans.

Being consulted is one thing, of course. Making your views count is another.

Just how much weight does she expect the views of English Heritage to carry when it comes to deciding the future shape of York and the rest of the region?

"That's something I've yet to see," she says.

It will be interesting to find out.

:: Saving the countryside

It is not only historic buildings and ancient monuments - such as Clifford's Tower, Whitby Abbey and York's city walls - that come under Maddy Jago's remit.

Her job also involves protecting Yorkshire's unique landscapes - the North York Moors, Dales and Wolds among them.

She talks with dry professionalism and authority about urban conservation areas. When she starts talking about the countryside, however, she lights up.

Perhaps that isn't surprising from someone who was brought up on a Kent smallholding and whose family, when she was 16, moved to Wales to run a hill farm. Not the ideal move for a teenage girl, surely? "I loved it," she says.

A couple of years later she went to Newcastle University to study agriculture and environmental science - and then spent six years as a farming adviser in the East Riding.

Part of her job involved advising farmers how they could preserve traces of earlier human activity on their land.

"Every single farm in East Yorkshire has a story to tell about how people settled in the area, how the landscape has changed," she says. "There might have been an ancient lane or parish boundary that threaded through a farm.

"They may have been overlooked - but being aware of what is there is a wonderful way of looking at the landscape's human past."

:: Yorkshire's heritage at risk

Yorkshire's heritage is at risk - and not only from over-

development. Time and changes in agriculture are all taking their toll. This year, English Heritage has spent about £3 million on

conservation, but the money does not go far. Yorkshire's heritage at risk includes:

Buildings

There are 55 buildings on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk register in North Yorkshire alone. These include:

Grade II* listed Yedingham Priory, in "poor" condition

The Grade I listed Ionic Temple at Duncombe Park, in "poor" condition

The Grade I castellated walls to The Stray at Castle Howard, and the Grade I walls of the walled garden at Castle Howard, in "very bad" condition

The Grade I listed Mausoleum at Castle Howard, in "poor" condition

Grade II* listed Sheriff Hutton Castle, in "poor" condition.

Rural landscapes

Buried prehistoric landscapes and unique continuous "ladder" settlements in the Vale of Pickering preserved for millennia beneath blown-sand deposits are under threat from deep ploughing and intensive irrigation

Many of the Yorkshire Dales's unique dry-stone walls and field barns are under threat from a combination of changing farm practices, the shortage of traditional dry-stone wallers, and the sheer cost of maintenance and repair

Much of North Yorkshire's historic parkland has been disappearing - lost to agriculture, development and, most recently, golf courses. In 1918, Yorkshire as a whole boasted more than 81,000 acres of parkland. By 1995, this had fallen to fewer than 39,000 acres.

:: The record of English Heritage in York

English Heritage's record in protecting the ancient fabric of York has been patchy in recent years.

It supported Coppergate II, claiming the scheme would replace a car park with landscaping and buildings which would "respect and harmonise" with nearby Clifford's Tower. Planning inspector John Bingham clearly disagreed. In his reasons for rejecting the scheme, he said it was "totally unacceptable in the context of the historic setting".

It supported the redevelopment of the Barbican Centre, even though it admitted to some concerns about the impact of a proposed new block of flats on the nearby city walls.

On the other hand, the organisation has been involved in some positive initiatives.

It called for an "environmental capacity study" to be carried out in York to assess just how much new development the city could take without its character being destroyed. It even objected to the draft York Local Plan in 2003 because no such assessment had been carried out. "We have been advised that the council has now carried out such an assessment as part of the emerging Local Development Framework", an English Heritage spokesman said.

It launched a campaign to get rid of much of the street clutter - unnecessary signs, railings and junction boxes - which blight many of York's streets.

Updated: 10:47 Wednesday, February 01, 2006