need -already emphasised by several of the speakers during the previous two daysto find a new platform from which to sell conservation to politicians both local and national; this included the demand for HBMCto take on the advocacy role much needed at the moment, as the Countryside Commission had done for nature conservation. The local councillors who were at the Conference, and those conservation officers from hard-pressed inner city authorities, were well aware that expenditure on conservation carried penalties in lost grant from central government, and several stressed the (quite reasonable) reluctance of socialist councils with a large and decaying housing stock to spend on listed buildings when other,less historic,buildings could provide more accommodation at less cost. An interesting comparison was made with agriculture: farmers are now being paid to take land out of cultivation for conservation reasons. Why was similar subsidy not available for the built environment? The main messages It is high time building conservationists locally and nationally made more noise; entered the political arena and became (or employed) professional lobbyists; appealed more to the public conscience; familiarised themselves with the 'Green Manifestos' of the political parties; and started using the language of the urban economist to stress that the built environment, and particularly the historic environment, is a resource well worth investment. The climate induced by the present government encourages individual expression and profit, but at the expense of some parts of the fragile and painfully acquired system of planning control we have. Conservation must be sold to the populist regimes; community architecture (however defined) must have a role to play here. A further well-defined need was for the conser~etionist as visionary and practitioner combined; not only being able to envisage a restoration, but bring it about as an example to others. workshop and AGM summaries by Jenny Birkett. Page 6 AGM ANNUALGENERALMEETING: SUMMARYOF PROCEEDINGS The AGMof the Association of Conservation Officers was held at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture on April 12th 1986. Opening the meeting, the Chairman said that we were pleased to be meeting in Liverpool in order to be able to see at first hand the scale of the problems the city was facing. He was convinced that the skills we had all acquired in our work saving historic buildings - finding new uses, new economic roles, co-ordinating funding and stimulating investment - could make some contribution towards positive solutions. The Treasurer said that our account had a small surplus -but that as always, the major expenditure had been in the production of CONTEXT. Most members felt this was worthwhile as the Newsletter is the main link between members and represents us to the outside world~ It was agreed that the subscription should be raised to £8.00 from April 1987. The Chairman and Treasurer were re-elected nem. con. but the Secretary, Tony Jenkins, wished to tender his resignation. Our gratitude for his hard work was expressed; Chris Smith was proposed as his replacement and was unanimously elected. Other officers were all re-elected; some Regional Contacts however have changed. (These are noted in the list on the inside front cover of this issue.) During general discussion, following the formal business, concern was expressed that much remained to be done to improve links with the HBMC. Suggestions made included meetings with individual Commissioners, possibly on a regional basis; and another joint conference in 1987. Three motions were approved; that the membership of ACO welcomes co-operation with the HBMC; that the organizers (in particular Mike King) should be thanked; and that ACOwould be committed to doing whatever it could to correct the wholly negati~e and unhelpful view of Liverpool currently voiced abroad.
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