Heritage

Heritage is of key importance to the countryside of the West Midlands, from famous towns like Stratford on Avon to the caverns under the Black Country Museum, from traditional farmsteads and barns to stately homes.

Our landscape has been determined by the houses, gardens, farmsteads and woodlands of previous generations. And it is the historic market towns and villages that define the character of our rural communities.

But the way areas are planned is changing. The Coalition Government removed regional strategies and introduced neighbourhood planning. Local plans are being, or have been, replaced with Local Development Frameworks. A new National Planning Policy Framework is being devised.

This is why CPRE believes it is timely for us to assess the state of the heritage protection policies we have in the West Midlands and ensure the best policies are carried forward in local and neighbourhood plans.

In April 2011 the West Midlands Regional Group of CPRE published ‘Heritage at Risk’, a report it commissioned from Katie Taylor as an independent assessment of heritage policies in existing local plans. Click Here to view.

The report recommended robust local plan policies to ensure the protection of our heritage, not preserved in aspic but as part of the ongoing renewal of the countryside.

We believe it’s essential that local politicians and their officials champion the heritage that matters to their community, are vigilant in defending it and ensure new development compliments the legacy of past generations.

13.07.11