C O N T E X T 8 4 : M A Y 2 0 0 4 33 Notes from the chair Last words from the podium In 1992, I joined Graham King and Barry Joyce to provide a series of conservation training seminars for the planning staff of the Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland). The modest ambition, facilitated by Queen’s University Belfast, was to download everything we knew in the course of two days of non-stop talking. By way of recovery, we ventured out of Belfast to take stock of conservation practice and we were sufficiently alarmed by what we found that we submitted a short report. At that time, for instance, there were 30 conservation areas in the whole of Northern Ireland, compared with 270 in Kent alone. Among our recommendations was the suggestion that a simple way to plug in to the collective conservation expertise of the rest of Britain would be to sponsor an annual school of the, then, ACO. All they would have to do would be to charter a plane. Well, some fall on stony ground and some just take a while to germinate. Here we are a dozen years later all queuing up to book places on the Annual School at Derry in June – aren’t we? But, my, how things have changed. Cheap travel means that Northern Ireland is very much more accessible and sponsorship is not so critical. The government has made some of the legislative and policy changes that were so lacking in 1992, and the links between conservation and regeneration are stronger. Now, Northern Ireland has a story to tell us about the role that conservation can play in regional identity and the government’s modernising agenda. So while we might still be able to export some aspects of best practice, we must recognise that it is very much a two-way process now. There is as much to learn as there is to teach, especially where we are seeing the growing influence of regional assemblies (‘Home rule for Cornwall’ says a voice over my shoulder). However, for many of us, a regionalising lesson is unfolding nearer to home right now. Back in 1999, it was considered imperative that English Heritage should be more closely aligned with New Labour which, of course, had not swept to power by waving conservation’s banner. This was to be achieved by setting up a regional structure with offices close to the Despite this, the regions are now accused of developing their own rules and financial arrangements. Depending on which commentary you read, EH now has to ‘break the power of these regional barons’ before it can become yet more modern. I am only surprised that EH should be surprised. Isn’t the regionalising agenda all about encouraging more autonomy? Well, yes, say those who promote eternal reorganisation, but management is change. My concern, however, is that some people appear to believe that change is management. Meanwhile, back in Derry, the Annual School will be a poignant event for me, as it will mark the end of my three years in the chair. So the next edition of this column will come from a different keyboard and it will be up to those at Derry to decide whose. This is an instance where change is positive management. My predecessor, Malcolm Airs, established an informal three-year rule and, while there is no constitutional requirement to step down, I agree that a ‘churn rate’ of about three years provides the right balance of stability and freshness. Anyway, I need to spend more time with my business (Surely family? Ed). The institute has achieved a lot in the past three years, internally and externally, as the annual reports demonstrate. I claim little credit for this: my own role has been that of conductor always wondering how long the orchestra would continue playing without me. All I can say to my successor is that we have some excellent players and to them we owe continuing thanks… oh, and if you supply photographs of yourself to the editor, you might be spared the gibes of his cartooning. Eddie Booth government’s regional offices. It would make EH more accessible and more responsive. Some said at the time that regionalising would require significant investment at the centre to coordinate the new satellites. Sure enough, the offices at Savile Row vacated by the regional teams were soon filled with new-style chiefs of this and that.
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