C O N T E X T 1 1 5 : J U LY 2 0 1 0 45 useful part to play in community engagement with heritage, have been carried out since the days of General Pitt-Rivers in the late 19th century. We can welcome the emphasis on ‘front-loading’ the system, in that we are required to have the information on the asset’s significance and the impact of the proposal on that significance before an application can even be validated. This is a welcome extra power for planning authorities. Training the staff receiving applications is crucial, as is the setting in place of protocols between planning reception and the local government heritage advisors for a quick response on the acceptability and relevance of information provided (a five-day turnaround). This will be particularly challenging in two-tier local government situations in terms of heritage assets that have archaeological interest. There will need to be robust and detailed service-level agreements to cover this. Guidance would be welcome from DCMS and/or English Heritage. The front-loading of the system will lead to a great deal of more work. This is likely to fall largely on the private sector.With the likely fall in curatorial numbers, even more onus will fall on our private sector colleagues to provide the appropriate advice and information to their clients. The PPS and its associated documents can offer us a new beginning in the management of the historic environment through the planning process. Many rightly assert that the PPS represents a paradigm shift rather than mere evolutionary change. Some critics see it as setting our role as merely managing associations and documenting destruction of heritage. This is not the case. The introduction of significance of a heritage asset is looking to define the essence of what is important about an asset (thereby allowing for informed decisions regarding impacts on it) in a more even-handed manner across all planning authorities. With the passing of PPG 16’s concept of ‘preservation by record’, in tandem with the PPS’s policy statement that ‘the ability to record evidence of our past should not be a factor in deciding whether a proposal that would result in a heritage asset’s destruction should not be given consent’, it could not be more clear that the documenting of destruction is not management of the historic environment. The introduction of ‘significance’ should be seen as heritage preservation/ conservation/management through evidence-based understanding. The PPS gives us a once-in-ageneration opportunity to extend the value of heritage beyond our sector. We will fail as a sector unless we accept change and rethink how we manage heritage.We will need to define how we derive value (particularly economic value) from heritage; re-emphasise the value of heritage in terms of sustainable development, place-making and building sustainable communities; prove what we have done by measuring outcomes; use the information base (HERs); seek evenhanded implementation (recognising the need for our professional associations to work together or a sector-wide commission to deliver this outcome); and re-evaluate investigation methods – from historic building appraisals and desk-based assessments to ‘statements of significance’, ‘heritage characterisation’, ‘viability tests’ and measures of ‘community value’. We will fail as a sector if we do not take on board both the challenges and opportunities offered by PPS5 and its associated documents.We need to rethink how we work, but can not afford to wait for a government resource that is unlikely ever to come. PPS5 should be seen as a worthy successor to the PPGs in the manner that it seeks to centrally embed heritage in the planning process. If we fail to see the PPS as an opportunity, we risk doing ourselves and the heritage we manage great damage, becoming a greater target for the inevitable and swingeing local government cuts to come. Good luck! Jonathan Smith is Gloucester City Council’s heritage service manager. A heritage asset:Worthing Pier, designed by Sir Robert Rawlinson, is listed Grade II. The Tower of London and a glimpse of the modern City
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