8 CONTEXT 184 : JUNE 2025 column regarding the Heritage Crafts Red List (‘Periodically’, Context 182, December 2024). Heritage Now In the latest issue of Heritage Now (No 11, Spring 2025), Historic Buildings and Places director Liz Power reviews the society’s centenary year. As the society has appointed Sara Robertson as its new chair, an illuminating article asks her some searching questions about her vision for the charity (and asks her about the five buildings that have played a particular part in her career so far). As the recent £7.5 million restoration of Newhaven Fort, a scheduled ancient monument, nears completion, Neil Harrison, head of commercial development at Wave Active, which operates Newhaven Fort, and Alan Corbett, managing director of Pilbeam Construction, explain the process of conserving an under-regarded ‘hidden heritage gem’ in East Sussex. Pat JonesJenkins of the Grade II* listed Ruppera Castle Preservation Trust (formed in 1997) explains the trust’s work aimed at reversing the decay of the present ruins, stemming from a significant decline of the estate in the 1930s, and a tortuous planning history of failed developer conversion plans in the 1990s and 2000s. Bob Kindred MBE HISTORIC BUILDINGS & PLACES HERITAGE NOW The Magazine of Historic Buildings & Places | www.hbap.org.uk NO. 11 (SPRING 2025) ‘A SUCCESSFUL example of adaptive reuse for more than 20 years, it’s often been quipped that more moments of genuine “popular culture” took place in the student union than ever did in its original guise as an institutional pop-museum. Surely, it’s time for a third act?’ The Twentieth Century Society commenting on the risk of demolition faced by the National Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield, designed by Branson Coates, which opened in 1999, closed in 2000 and was later Sheffield Hallam University’s students’ union. ‘I’D BE THE first to say that there are improvements that really need to be made to the planning and heritage protection system to make it operate more efficiently, but we have a system which generally operates reasonably well. The growth in heritage consultants over the years has significantly improved the quality of countless applications, however the resources in local authorities to deal with the applications are stretched to breaking point. ‘With the best will in the world most local authority elected members, planners and conservation officers probably won’t be fully informed on all the finer points of every specialist area of heritage. Which is why heritage charities such as the Gardens Trust provide such an invaluable service to local authorities (and the communities those councils serve) by helping ensure wellinformed decisions are made in a timely manner. Their views are not binding, and their inputs are meant to be there to help set a particular site in its local, regional, national, or sometimes international, context.’ Duncan McCallum, chair of SPAB, giving his personal view on LinkedIn of the government’s proposal to remove a limited number of statutory consultees and narrowing the scope of others from inputting into planning decisions. ‘DO YOU remember Annex C of PPG15? Although it was cancelled about 15 years ago, to me it still captures and distils much of the way we think about listed building management. Its messages have been shredded and largely repackaged in other (voluminous and disaggregated) guidance documents, but I think some of the simplicity and directness has been lost as a result. Annex C still contains the core language used to debate change affecting historic buildings. ‘I am not, of course, suggesting it can or should be resuscitated in its original form. It would need some updating if it ever again saw the light of day. My regret is that we do not have a succinct 5,300 word go-to equivalent in 2025. ‘Perhaps I will be told that things are more complex now than they were in 1994, and that we need ever more guidance to swim through. Really? Much of what I see in heritage impact assessments and consultation responses can be traced back to Annex C. Those of you who once used it in anger might like to cast a nostalgic eye over it. Those of you who know it only as a folk memory might like to ponder on how many of its homespun exhortations still stand, more than three decades after it was issued.’ Jonathan Edis writing on LinkedIn
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