REVIT Heritage Report.pdf

Torfaen County Borough Council
REVIT: A Review of the Conservation of Industrial Heritage Assets on Brownfield Sites
3 Industrial Heritage: Legal and Policy Background
3.1 International Overview
3.1.1 In 1972 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) produced the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World
Cultural and Natural Heritage which sought to protect the cultural heritage in
signatory areas.
3.1.2 UNESCO produces the list of World Heritage Sites (WHS), under the advice of
the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which seeks to
protect sites of international importance.
3.1.3 The standards of the Council of Europe are indicated in a series of Convention
for the safeguarding:
• architectural heritage (Grenada, October 3, 1985),
• convention on the protection of the archaeological inheritance (Valetta,
January 16, 1992)
• landscape (Florence, October 20, 2000). European Convention Generally
the recommendations of the Council of Europe in the field of the heritage
are taken into account in the national legislation.
3.2 England
Heritage Bodies
3.2.1 In England the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is the central
UK Government Department responsible for Government policy on the arts,
sport and recreation, the National Lottery, libraries, museums and galleries,
export licensing of cultural goods, broadcasting, film, press freedom and
regulation, the built heritage, the royal estate and tourism.
3.2.2 In England various government supported bodies protect and manage the
archaeological and built heritage. These organizations recommend to the
relevant minister buildings for listing and monuments for scheduling and parks
and gardens for registering as well as retaining the definitive base data on
such protected sites.
3.2.3 In England the executive organization responsible for the protection of
archaeological sites, monuments, listed buildings and parks and gardens is
English Heritage (EH). Some movement towards centralisation of heritage
functions has taken place in England, as the Royal Commission on Historical
Monuments of England, which maintains its own National Monument Records,
has been absorbed into EH.
3.2.4 At a local level, in England local planning authorities usually retain their own
archaeological staff who advise on the archaeological impact of planning
applications. In England these archaeological groups maintain databases of
their areas called the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR), increasingly known
as Historic Environment Records (HER).
3.2.5 In England the various local authorities also generally retain their own
architectural conservation staff, although some rely on consultants or adjacent
local authority staff to fill this function. The conservation staff provides advice
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