28 C O N T E X T 1 1 5 : J U LY 2 0 1 0 to be considered dynamically, as the viewer moves about, by day and night, and at different seasons of the year, the last implying different vegetation cover among other things. A recent example is the dynamic visual impact study (DVIS) of the Westminster World Heritage Site. UNESCO, responsible for inscribing and upholding the status of world heritage sites, had questioned whether the outstanding universal values for which Westminster was inscribed were being properly safeguarded. The construction of tall buildings rising well beyond the site, but nevertheless appearing to loom up in the background to the existing view, was a possibility. An essential first step was a baseline study of the site considering, in accordance with government policy on protecting world heritage sites (2009), views into, across and out of the site. It is envisaged that a DVIS would form part of a planning application (or be incorporated into an environmental impact assessment) for proposals which could potentially impact on important views of world heritage sites.The plan shows the boundaries of the site and the initial set of view assessment points selected by the WWHS DVIS steering group. The photograph illustrates part of a well known view, looking towards the ClockTower across Parliament Square. The square was opened up in the 19th century and most recently laid out after the second world war at least in part to create this view. By these means it should be possible to bring the management of all kinds of views, from the most typical and local to the most well known and famous, within the English planning system, in an orderly, consistent and reasonable way. Views Management Framework (LVMF). This supplementary planning guidance, adopted in 2007, employs qualitative visual assessment and geometric definition to assess designated views in the capital, many of which are long views that could be affected by tall buildings. This concern is not new. We can regard it as the latest updating of protection for certain familiar views that began in the 1930s with the City of London’s policy of limiting the height of buildings erected around St Paul’s to protect the visibility of the cathedral. This was well before the arrival of a comprehensive system of town and country planning in 1947–8. Local building regulations, if not technology, also limited the height and size of buildings in London, where – amid some contention – regulations were relaxed in the late 1950s. London’s skyline was not to be the same after that. The English Heritage views analysis is meant to complement the LVMF in London and supplementary planning document studies of views and tall buildings produced by other planning authorities. It draws on methods set out, for example, in the Landscape Institute’s guidelines for measuring visual impact assessment (2002). The method of analysis should be able to assess all sorts of views rationally and systematically, and the principles have been, and are being, tried in Oxford, Bristol, Bath and Liverpool. The baseline analysis aims to state, for each asset or combination of assets, which aspects of historic significance can be appreciated in a view, the overall heritage value of the view and how the significance of the view can be sustained. If necessary views are References Planning Policy Statement 5: planning and the historic environment (PPS5), Communities and Local Government (2010) (www.communities.gov.uk/documents/ planningandbuilding/ pdf/1514132.pdf) PPS5 Historic Environment Planning Practice Guide, English Heritage (2010) (www.english-heritage. org.uk/publications/ pps-practice-guide/ pps5practiceguide.pdf) Conservation Principles: policies and guidance for the sustainable management of the historic environment, English Heritage (2008) (www.english-heritage. org.uk/publications/ conservation-principlespolicies-guidance-apr08/ conservationprinciplespoliciesguidanceapr08web.pdf/) Seeing the History in the View, English Heritage (2008) (www.englishheritage.org.uk/content/ imported-docs/p-t/ historyinview1.pdf) Circular on the Protection ofWorld Heritage Sites, Communities and Local Government (2009) The Protection and Management ofWorld Heritage Sites in England, English Heritage (2009) Guidance on Tall Buildings, English Heritage and CABE (2007) LondonView Management Framework (LVMF), Mayor of London (2007) Westminster World Heritage Site Management Plan 2007 Guidelines for Landscape andVisual Impact, Landscape Institute and Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (2nd edition, 2002) Sarah Green is the regional landscape architect working for English Heritage in London. A view of the Big Ben tower from the north-west corner of Parliament Square A view of St Pauls from across the river
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