INHERIT has been invited to contribute to a conference on historic environment policy on 15th March 2018.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is the lead public body in Scotland for the historic environment. HES published its Policy Statement in 2016 and this is now being reviewed. The Policy Statement sets out how HES fulfils its regulatory and advisory roles and how it expects others to interpret and implement Scottish Planning Policy with regard to historic environment matters.
The conference is being organised by Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS), an umbrella body for organisations working in the built environment in Scotland. The event aims to inform the review of the Policy Statement. It will bring people together for an intensive workshop looking at creative and pragmatic approaches to caring for Scotland’s historic environment. The main themes of the day are Vision, Management and Designation.
We are grateful to BEFS for the invitation to contribute to the event. Our contribution will take the form of a ‘provocation’ on the theme of Designation, and we have chosen to speak about the relationships between designation and people. We will focus on Designation+Justice.
Designation is one of the main ways in which Scotland’s historic environment – its historic buildings, sites, places and landscapes – is protected and preserved. Looking beyond this explicit conservation purpose, we see that designation potentially has wider effects too. Designation influences the ways in which places and communities develop. (Here, we are referring both to the act of designating something in the first place and to any subsequent decisions and actions relating to the designation.)
In our provocation, we will aim to chart a path towards a more just approach to designation. We will address three questions. How do historic environment designations impact upon people? Can people participate in designation decisions that affect them? What are the priorities for the future of designation policy and designation practice?
For further information on HES, BEFS, the HES Policy Statement and the conference, see: