Conservation Principles, Policies and Guidance - English Heritage

Preamble
MANAGING CHANGE TO SIGNIFICANT PLACES
84 Conservation involves people managing change to a significant place in its
setting, in ways that sustain, reveal or reinforce its cultural and natural heritage
values (Principle 4.2). Conservation is not limited to physical intervention,
for it includes such activities as the interpretation and sustainable use of places.
It may simply involve maintaining the status quo, intervening only as necessary
to counter the effects of growth and decay, but equally may be achieved
through major interventions; it can be active as well as reactive. Change to a
significant place is inevitable, if only as a result of the passage of time, but can
be neutral or beneficial in its effect on heritage values. It is only harmful if
(and to the extent that) significance is eroded.
85 The public interest in significant places is recognised through specific legislative
and policy constraints on their owners, but there are few fiscal concessions to
encourage conservation, and direct financial assistance is very limited. It is the
potential of significant places to be used and enjoyed that generates value
in the market or to a community, and so tends to motivate and enable their
owners to exercise positive, informed stewardship. Very few significant places
can be maintained at either public or private expense unless they are capable
of some beneficial use; nor would it be desirable, even if it were practical, for
most places that people value to become solely memorials of the past.
86 Keeping a significant place in use is likely to require continual adaptation and
change; but, provided such interventions respect the values of the place, they
will tend to benefit public (heritage) as well as private interests in it. Many
places now valued as part of the historic environment exist because of past
patronage and private investment, and the work of successive generations
often contributes to their significance. Owners and managers of significant
places should not be discouraged from adding further layers of potential future
interest and value, provided that recognised heritage values are not eroded or
compromised in the process.
87 The shared public and private interest in sustaining significant places in use
demands mutual co-operation and respect between owners or managers and
regulators. The best use for a significant place – its ‘optimum viable use’ 9 – is
one that is both capable of sustaining the place and avoids or minimises harm
to its values in its setting. It is not necessarily the most profitable use if that
would entail greater harm than other viable uses.
9 PPG 15, paragraph 3.9, in the context of listed buildings, but the principle is applicable to most significant places.
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