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Historic Gardens 2010
BCD Special Report
allocation of land for business development
be deleted from the Deposit Draft of the
UDP. The Inspector considered that the
proposed business development, even
in combination with landscape planting,
would very significantly erode the spacious
setting of the conservation area and would
neither preserve nor enhance its character or
appearance in line with the objectives of PPW.
Enabling development
Another recent planning inquiry in which
the trust was involved concerned Ruperra
Castle near Caerphilly. This case highlights
the complex threat posed by enabling
development, development which would
usually be considered contrary to policy
being granted planning permission to
enable the owners to fund vital repair work
to some historic fabric. In the absence
of comparable guidance from Cadw, the
policy statements and guidelines issued by
English Heritage
Enabling Development and
the Conservation of Heritage Assets (2008)
are
requested to be adopted in any planning
response concerning enabling development.
The underlying remit of these guidelines
is that significant damage to the historic
asset must not outweigh the gain.
Ruperra Castle’s garden is Grade II
listed the Cadw
Register
, the primary reason
being that it represents
the survival of an
unusual early Jacobean mock castle of exceptional
historical significance with its attendant deer park
and structural remains of contemporary formal
gardens
(Glamorgan Register). The castle
itself is also a scheduled ancient monument
and Grade II* listed building within a
conservation area. It might thus be considered
worthy of the highest level of protection.
The owner submitted an application
for refurbishing the castle, outbuildings
and ancillary works for residential
purposes which included the construction
of 18 new dwellings and an access road.
responses by all the trust branches. Detailed
local knowledge within the branches has been
demonstrated to be of vital importance when
identifying planning applications posing a
potential threat. Some branches have been
regularly monitoring and responding to
planning applications since the introduction of
protection and have established a good working
relationship with planning departments.
Cadw, the key party on historic
environment matters, because of its unique
and somewhat ambiguous role cannot object
but only make comments on planning
applications. There is a real danger that, even
though Cadw may strongly advise against a
proposal, a lack of formal objection could be
interpreted as support for the application.
In the recent Government White Paper:
Heritage Protection for the 21st Century
the
role of the WHGT is acknowledged. The
paper proposes statutory consultation
and includes the WHGT as a Statutory
Consultee in respect of planning applications
affecting registered parks and gardens. As in
England, the proposals include simplifying
the current national designation system for
buildings, parks and gardens and ancient
monuments with a new unified system, but
with no change in the selection criteria or
grading systems within Wales. However,
this legislation was not included on the last
Queen’s List and is unlikely to be introduced
to the statute book in the near future.
Protection of
non-register sites
The Welsh Historic Gardens Trust also has
a role in highlighting and responding to
planning applications affecting gardens of
local importance and vulnerable non-register
sites not within the protected setting of a
listed building, scheduled ancient monument
or a conservation area. Several branches
have compiled county inventories of parks,
gardens and designed landscapes of historic
importance. In some cases the trust has been
involved in campaigns to spot list sites at risk.
Research was concentrated initially on
potential registerable sites in areas where
the register had not yet been published.
In Ceredigion, where the register did not
appear until 2002, sites under threat were
prioritised for recording and research.
One such was Trawscoed, which lacked
adequate protection at the time of its
proposed sale by a Government Agency to
a private buyer. A tree survey carried out
in 1994 formed the basis of a Woodland
Protection Order safeguarding important
18th and 19th century tree plantings.
WHGT has been able to make a
unique contribution to conservation
in Wales. As a result of the in-depth
research carried out by its members, it
is capable of responding promptly and
knowledgeably to planning applications.
Lack of maintenance, wilful or unwitting
destruction of garden features and divided
ownership can all pose a threat to historic
gardens. The local vigilance of WHGT
branch conservation officers is one of the
few safeguards in identifying such threats.
Development plans
Decisions made by county councils on land
use planning in Wales are plan-led: that is
to say they should reflect the policies set out
in local and regional development plans,
which, in turn, should reflect the policy of the
Welsh Assembly Government. It is therefore
vital for the safeguarding of historic parks
and gardens that there are strong policies
within these plans offering them protection.
Effective responses to planning applications
depend upon the strength of these policies.
Currently many local authorities still operate
under the policies of Unitary Development
Plans (UDP) or its predecessor the Local
Plan. Now each county council is required
under the provisions of the
Planning and
Compulsory Purchase Act 2004
to produce a
Local Development Plan (LDP). Currently
we are in a period of transition in which
some local authorities are still working on
the preparation of a UDP while others have
already started on the preparation of an LDP.
The branches of the Welsh Historic
Gardens Trust have participated in the
consultation process in the preparation of
local plans and UDPs and as a result effective
policies are in place in many development
plans. The trust is now taking an active role
in the consultation process for the preparation
of LDPs and, with its locally-based branches,
is in a strong position to make informed
contributions to achieve protection of
historic parks and gardens in Wales.
In some cases land-use designations
in these development plans have been
successfully contested. A notable example was
Gwynedd County Council’s UDP proposal
for applying a business use designation to the
core of the historic Faenol estate. The trust
held the view that business development
would have greatly harmed the Grade I
park and the setting of the historic listed
buildings and Faenol Conservation Area. The
Inspector agreed, ruling that the proposed
Aerial view of Grade I listed Faenol Estate situated west of Bangor overlooking the Menai Straits. The inclusion of a business
use designation in the Gwynedd Unitary Development Plan for the core of the estate was refused at a public inquiry in 2009.
(Photo: Crown copyright RCAHMS)