REVIT Heritage Report.pdf

Torfaen County Borough Council
REVIT: A Review of the Conservation of Industrial Heritage Assets on Brownfield Sites
can provide an attractive location for housing, business and leisure and can
provide a stimulus for economic development.
5.2.3 The themes which recur within these case studies include:
• Regeneration of former industrial sites by ‘pump-priming’;
• Preservation of the industrial and cultural identity;
• High standard of environmental and architectural quality;
• Integrating a strategy of urban and economic development, creating a
social and cultural profile and participation;
• Public partnership with private enterprise;
• Innovative approaches to large construction projects;
• High quality homes, offices and infrastructure;
• Fast-track planning process, based on a long-term vision and long-term
agreement or covenants; and
• Mixed development.
5.2.4 As in many of these case studies the first approach to each site has generally
been to make an informed assessment of the importance of the existing
historic features. From this an overall conservation plan should be produced
specifying the conservation approach for each building, such as:
• preservation with minimum repairs;
• restoration for museums or interpretation;
• complete refurbishment for business or other uses; and
• in some cases demolition.
5.2.5 The Dutch model of inputting archaeological values into the Sites and
Monuments Record provides a very useful planning tool and, by providing an
inventory of potential regeneration sites, allows the protection of the cultural
heritage to be maximised. This model stresses that not all sites are of equal
importance. In Britain not all heritage databases examine the heritage value of
an individual site, and instead concentrate on archaeological and historic
background, with less emphasis on relative value and is, therefore, of less
useful for planning purposes and decision-making.
5.2.6 Although not all industrial assets are of archaeological, architectural or historic
importance, groups of buildings of lesser quality may still add to the overall
character of an area. The French model of PSVU makes a direct link between
conserving the historic core of an area and encouraging re-development by
controlling the regeneration.
5.2.7 The models provided by Blaenavon, Medway and Hengelo, emphasise the
importance of the relevant local authorities promoting the statutory protection
of important sites as a means of preventing erosion of the area’s historic
character after regeneration.
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