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BCD Special Report
Historic Gardens 2010
23
PPS5 is considerably shorter than either
of the two PPGs it replaces. It achieves this
by focussing on the principles rather than
the detail and, in particular, on fostering an
understanding of the impact of a proposal
on the significance of the heritage asset:
Local planning authorities should require
an applicant to provide a description of the
significance of the heritage assets affected
and the contribution of their setting to that
significance. The level of detail should be
proportionate to the importance of the heritage
asset and no more than is sufficient to understand
the potential impact of the proposal on the
significance of the heritage asset. (HE6.1)
The general philosophical approach
of PPS5 clearly corresponds well to the
more ‘holistic’ approach to the historic
environment emerging from Heritage
Protection Reform. However, delivery of
this more informed approach to planning
for the historic environment will require
significant investment of resources: owners
and developers will have to be willing to
invest in appropriate professional advice;
local authorities will need to invest in their
historic environment services in order
that appropriate levels of information are
available; and the external expert advisers,
the statutory consultees, will almost
inevitably find that their workload increases
as more detailed scrutiny of the nuances of
development proposals will be required.
Statutory consultation on
historic designed landscapes
Government Circular 9/95 sets out the
requirement for planning authorities to consult
The Garden History Society and English
Heritage on planning applications affecting
nationally designated designed landscapes:
• The Garden History Society must be
consulted on applications affecting any
registered landscape, regardless of grade
• English Heritage must be consulted
on proposals which affect Grade I
and Grade II* registered sites.
Additionally, English Heritage may comment
on proposals which affect Grade II landscapes,
for example where the landscape forms the
setting to a highly graded listed building, or
where there are wider policy implications.
Although sometimes criticised for
introducing an element of delay into the
determination of planning applications,
statutory consultation provides planning
authorities with an essential opportunity to
acquire additional expert guidance which
is often unavailable ‘in house’. It is also
an important element in the process of
democratic scrutiny of development proposals.
In order to streamline the application
process, and to minimise the potential
for delay once an application has been
submitted, it is important that planners
encourage applicants to follow best practice
and engage in as wide-ranging pre-application
discussions as possible. Such discussions
should certainly involve the appropriate
statutory consultees, and ideally should
also involve relevant national and local
amenity societies and other ‘stakeholders’.
Locally designated
designed landscapes
Not all designed landscapes which are
important to local communities, or which help
to create a particular sense of place or local
distinctiveness, will meet the high criteria for
national designation; and there are many sites
which have been identified through English
Heritage’s Register Review Programme as
being of potentially national significance
but which have not yet been assessed for
inclusion on the
Register of Parks and Gardens
.
Such sites, although falling outside
the remit of national designation, clearly
merit identification within the planning
system in order that the impact of potential
change may be correctly evaluated before
permission is granted for development.
Already many local authorities include a
Local List of locally or regionally significant
designed landscapes within their Local
Development Framework. Such lists need
to be robust and ideally supported by a
definitive map and a statement setting out
why the site is considered to be significant.
PPS5 places much greater emphasis on
the importance of such sites, and actively
Warstone Lane Cemetery (Grade II) in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter conservation area makes a significant contribution to the special historic interest and character of that place and,
through its collection of funerary monuments, reflects the historic development of the surrounding area. (Photo: Jonathan Lovie)