Page 15 - The Building Conservation Directory 2013

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Professional services ScheduledMonument
Consent
A conservation architect’s view
Robin Kent
The 1913 Ancient Monuments
Consolidation and Amendment Act was
the first legislation in Britain to require
consent for works to monuments of national
importance (scheduled monuments on which
a preservation order had been served). Its
centenary is a good moment to consider the
protection of Britain’s scheduled monuments.
What is protected?
The 1913 act built on the 1882 Ancient
Monuments Protection Act, Britain’s first
heritage legislation, which initiated the shift in
legal perception from monuments as private
property to the communal shared heritage
that we now take for granted. The 1882 act
made it a criminal offence to damage any of
the 69 monuments detailed on the schedule,
which then included earthworks, burial
mounds, stone circles and standing stones.
Today’s schedule protects over 200
‘classes’ of monument, including castles,
monasteries, abandoned medieval farmsteads
and villages, collieries and wartime pillboxes
(churches in use and dwellings are generally
excluded). A total of over 34,000 monuments
are now included, with more than 200 around
the UK being added to the schedule each year
out of nearly one million known nationally
important archaeological sites.1 However,
the basis of protection provided remains the
same as in the 1882 act, and the current act,
the Scheduled Monuments and Archaeological
Areas Act 1979, requires Scheduled Monument
Consent (SMC) to be obtained before carrying
out almost any works.
Applications
The works which require SMC are
comprehensively defined in the 1979 act
and summarised as any works that result in
demolition, destruction or damage, removal,
repair, alteration or addition, flooding or
tipping (Section 2(2)). The use of metal
detectors also requires prior written consent
(Section 42).
Works outside the area outlined on the
designation map for the scheduled monument
do not require SMC unless they directly
affect the monument, but SMC may be
required for works to machinery attached
to it and the surrounding ground if they
could affect the monument (for example by
providing support).
Although there is no protection under
the act for the visual setting of a scheduled
monument to parallel the zones protégés which
French monuments enjoy, planning authorities
are obliged to adopt a positive conservation
strategy and give ‘great weight’ to the
conservation of designated heritage assets
in local plans and development proposals
(Section 12(132), National Planning Policy
Framework). Planning authorities also consult
the relevant determining body if development
affects the setting of a scheduled monument.
The basic requirements for applications
are set out in the act (Schedule 1 to the
1979 act and the Ancient Monuments
(Applications for Scheduled Monuments)
Consent Regulations 1981). However, the
legislation is slightly different in each of the
four home countries, and may well diverge
further over time, so the current online
guidance of the appropriate determining
body2 should always be consulted before
applying. Anyone can submit an application
for SMC providing the usual notifications
are given. About 1,400 are submitted each
year3 and the majority are approved.
Since the preservation of irreplaceable
monuments of national importance is the
aim, proposals usually require detailed
technical consideration and the determining
bodies strongly encourage pre-application
discussions with the inspector of ancient
monuments (or equivalent) for the area. For
standing buildings a suitably experienced
conservation architect or surveyor should
take the lead in these discussions on behalf
of the owner and an archaeologist would
usually be needed for field monuments.
The pre-application discussions and the
application itself are free and professional
fees for working up schemes of repair
can sometimes be grant-aided.
If the monument is also a listed building
and the works include alterations, SMC will
take precedence and listed building consent
will not be required. Scheduled monuments
are also exempt from the need for Building
Regulations approval or a building warrant
in Scotland. However, if the works are part
of larger proposals that require planning
permission, approval will still be required.
This will ideally be dealt with in parallel with
SMC, with the determining body (English
Heritage for example) liaising with the local
planning authority.
Although the level of detail required
for SMC applications may in some cases be
no more than for a planning application,
experience suggests that considerably more
is usually required by the determining body
to ensure that the proposals are properly
described and to safeguard the monument.
For standing structures such as ruined
monuments, the application is likely to
require detailed drawings and specifications
at least to RIBA stage E, Technical
Design, if not F, Production Information
standard. Measured survey drawings
may be required to enable this, although
annotated photographs can be accepted
depending on the nature of the works.
To ensure the heritage significance of
the monument is properly safeguarded,
other information may also be required. This
may include a statement of significance, a
condition report, a statement of justification,
A modern intervention in a ruined medieval house
which is now a wildflower garden (All illustrations:
Robin Kent)