REVIT Heritage Report.pdf

Torfaen County Borough Council
REVIT: A Review of the Conservation of Industrial Heritage Assets on Brownfield Sites
responsible for paying for the cost of preserving sites or the excavation of
unknown sites within the development.
3.5.3 Guidance to planning authorities in Wales concerning the built heritage is
detailed in Circular 61/96 'Planning and the Historic Environment: Historic
Buildings and Conservation Areas’.
3.5.4 This document establishes that it is an objective of the planning system to
secure the preservation of all listed buildings and any features of special
architectural or historic interest, which they might possess.
3.5.5 Conservation Areas are protected as areas of special architectural or historic
interest, which it is the duty of the local authority to preserve or enhance. The
setting of a listed building or Conservation Area is also a material consideration
in then planning process when determining the effect of developments in close
proximity. The settings of SAMs, Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas are
protected.
3.5.6 The planning system recognises the importance of historic buildings of interest
and quality, and both statutory controls and grant assistance may be used to
secure their preservation or sympathetic alteration. Townscapes now receive
particular attention, both through town schemes in which Cadw and local
authorities participate and an allied initiative launched by the Heritage Lottery
Fund. In Wales the Townscape Heritage Initiative is working alongside
organisations such as the Welsh Development Agency to achieve
regeneration.
3.6 Netherlands
Heritage Bodies
3.6.1 Preserving heritage sites has been official government policy in the
Netherlands since 1874, when the national budget allowed for ‘the
preservation and supervision of memorials of Dutch History and Art’. Although
many castles, city gates, churches and medieval houses were demolished in
the nineteenth century because they no longer served a purpose, this led to
private initiatives being taken to preserve buildings of antiquarian interest.
3.6.2 Cultural heritage was placed at the centre of improving the quality of the
environment, and a partnership was formed between three Ministries
(Education, Culture and Science; Housing, Spatial Planning and the
Environment; and Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries) in order to
coordinate cultural heritage and planning policy. Heritage policy was extended
to include planning and the term ‘cultural planning’ was introduced. This
essentially involves working together with all interested parties but is a
development-oriented rather than conservation-led approach.
3.6.3 The management of the cultural heritage in the Netherlands is relatively
centrally managed. The archaeological resource is centrally curated by the
Archaeological Expertise Centre (Ryksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig
Bodemonderzoek or ROB), with the Kwaliteitsnorm Nederlandse Archeologie
(KNA), the National Archaeological Inspectorate set up to monitor
archaeological standards.
3.6.4 ROB focuses on monuments of national and international importance, whether
or not they have statutory protection. The responsibility of ROB is largely to
protect and preserve archaeological sites; it only carries out a limited number
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