C O N T E X T 1 2 0 : J U LY 2 0 1 1 37 places to live, enjoy and benefit from, for today and the future. So can we apply this perspective to our own operations under localism? If ‘amenity’ – whether cared for or improved – provides the answer to what people want in their places, how do we help them manage those amenities? Crucially, a point not yet developed in the localism debate, but clear already in the original bill, is that improving local amenity is not just about making one aspect of life better. That improvement must be balanced against the implications for others. Planning mechanisms – for all their failings in the eyes of the current government – help managing the balance between opposing interests, and ensure that improved amenity for one is not necessarily simply to the disadvantage of another. The only substantial mechanism in localism for that particular balancing act is a ‘national interest’. That is crude. The residents of Corby are aghast at the fact that, while #$ per cent of locals objected to a nearby landfill site being used for low-level nuclear storage, their ‘localist’ government has determined that such use is in the national interest, and that they must live with it. Their very articulate local MP, a Conservative, is no less aghast, and no less disillusioned. Clearly government will need some more sophisticated management system if localism is to be credible. That need for a wider perspective demonstrates why the IHBC’s principles are more important than ever, even if they are still not as we would like them to be. Amenity – not just heritage – remains at the heart of our concerns. Conserving places loses its relevance if people do not have the chance to care about them, enjoy them and benefit from them, or if they cost so much that they are no longer economically sustainable. The IHBC’s skills requirements, rooted in the principles of ICOMOS, and the practicalities of project management, ensure that our valued places, the heart of &!st century amenities, are given the best possible chance for the future. So we advise on the amenities that our heritage provides, and how heritage values can be managed and enhanced in the face of other pressures. It is to our credit that we insist on doing this from a position informed by the appropriate levels of skills, knowledge and experience. That is why operating our membership standards in the way we do remains so important. Seán O’Reilly, [email protected] Vox pop Pauline Gallacher works as a full-time volunteer (essentially an unpaid staff member) and as a member of the management team for the Neilston Development Trust. The trust, controlled by local residents, aims to respond to the needs of, and benefit, the whole community of Neilston, a village in East Renfrewshire, Scotland. The trust has grown from an initial idea for a community-led master plan to an ambitious organisation with social, economic and environmental objectives. Gallacher sees it as being at a crucial point of its development, moving from a reliance on volunteer capacity towards becoming a sustainable, well-founded social enterprise. Who has been your greatest inspiration? In terms of my work, probably Jan Gehl, whose ideas and willingness personally to engage with my emerging understanding came at a pivotal time in my own development. As with all inspirational teachers, his encouragement has given me the confidence to move on from urban design, however humane, to a way of working that tries (no guarantees) to integrate a wider policy agenda but remains committed to place. What has been your best idea? Space to Live, the organisation that became Neilston Development Trust. ‘First life, then spaces, then buildings – the other way around never works.’ Jan Gehl again. The life expanded beyond Gehl’s wonderful mantra towards an approach which stimulates and celebrates the common life of a place as one of its key assets, the platform from which any spatial transformation should spring. Having found a few kindred spirits who ‘got it’, Space to Live was born. How do you reply when at a party someone asks what you do? This is difficult, since you can see that I neither have a job nor a job title. If pressed, I mumble something about working on a project that is community led, and is trying to promote a strategic and sustainable plan for our place; that we have acquired a building, the former bank, and are renovating it; that we are engaged on a joint venture for a small wind farm that will see the community funded for the next &( years; that we run a festival, a café and a volunteer programme; that we have just completed a carbon-reduction project; and that we have been doing two research projects on health and heritage. I wonder why I don’t get many party invites these days. What is the biggest frustration in your job? No core funding for the work we do, despite being praised by many in government and other influential circles for the fact that our project embodies the holistic, community-led vision of regeneration in the widest sense so keenly advocated by parties of every political hue. It is difficult to speak about this without sounding a martyr, but the lack of financial pumppriming in the early years means that emerging trusts and community anchor organisations are not able to develop a sound business footing, relying instead on project funding, temporary contracts and volunteering to build an edifice in an operating context which is itself challenging.We are not looking for endless handouts, just the business development funding that any emerging enterprise needs. After sevenand-a-half years as a volunteer, you will understand my frustration. Cont’d overleaf
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