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What have we discovered about this theme? |
General Findings
Built heritage can be found in nearly every small town across Europe. Most small towns have long history, and tangible pieces of this history can usually be found within these towns. Unfortunately, the role and potential of this built heritage is often underestimated.
Based on the survey within 12 SusSET towns, the top 4 commonly identified problems concerning built heritage in small towns are:
- How to attract new investment and, at the same time, preserve the key built heritage of the towns.
- How to oppose the degradation of historical spaces.
- How to create/sustain town’s identity by promoting its built and natural heritage, not only locally or nationwide, but also internationally.
- How to use these assets in accordance with citizens’ needs.
Built heritage can never be treated in isolation from other town policies. It can affect, and can be affected by, various issues (see other toolkit components). Identifying and pondering these links can be very helpful in managing heritage issues.
SusSET partners were asked to think about the most important Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats related to the built heritage, and planning in their towns. The answers may not reflect general truth in Europe, but they may give hint to what is considered important by small expanding towns with regard to these issues.
Strengths :
- Distinctive buildings, monuments, culture and history (especially town centre)
- Good commercial and geographical location
- Strong community awareness
Weaknesses :
- Lack of funding, human resources and time
- Poor local identification/ lack of understanding and awareness
- Lack of long term planning strategy (making ad hoc planning decisions)
Opportunities :
- Investment in town centre
- Commercial opportunities / development of economy of the town
- Renewal/refurbishment in other parts of town/buildings/monuments
- Expansion of town (ideas and proposals of development)
- Government initiatives
Threats :
- Loss of town identity, loss of focus on town centre (peripheral, unplanned housing and investments)
- Loss of heritage buildings (demolition of old buildings for new investments)
- Budget constraints/ inability to acquire funding
- Bureaucracy
- Local mentality/ public apathy
The SusSET partners examined reasons behind the success or failure of their built heritage approaches:
A. Key reasons for success:
- the public sector attracts private investors’ attention to potential incentives
- the public sector works in close cooperation/dialogue with private developers regarding design and the whole development process
- the local community is consulted throughout the project and, preferably, involved in the project
B. Key reasons for failure:
- financial reasons, i.e. lack of proper funding, budget constraints in small towns
- organisational reasons (too little time for concept work, consultations etc.)
- lack of community consensus on details of the enterprise
- insufficient promotion of the project among funding bodies and the community
The general regulations concerning preservation and dealing with built heritage differ across the regions, but there is common understanding across the EU that heritage needs to be protected and preserved. In order to do this, the pieces of built heritage are given status of ‘listed buildings’ (for separate buildings or monuments) or ‘conservation areas’ (for areas grouping pieces of built heritage). The names for these may vary in each country, but the idea is the same – to facilitate preservation and protection of the character of a place or building.
In some countries, endangered built heritage is enrolled on a ‘buildings at risk’ list, whereas in others, they are given marks or ranks based on the assessment of their condition. At the local level, sometimes this understanding of the need to preserve and protect weakens, especially if there is strong pressure on development or new investments. Of course, national and regional legislation is adhered to, but it often relates to the exceptionally valuable or strictly historic built heritage, leaving the final decision to local authorities and national agencies.
To avoid the risk of undertaking tentative or temporary decisions, or political decisions that come under investment/development pressure, small towns need to develop long- term strategies for built heritage as part of an overall, integrated town strategy (see ‘Long Term Planning’ component). This should:
- identify the built heritage in town
- identify key links between built heritage and other areas of town management
- link the built heritage policy with other policies
- focus on preservation and sustainable, appropriate exploitation of the built heritage to the benefit of community
- present measures on how to raise awareness and responsibility for built heritage within residents
- present measures on how to promote local built heritage
- present measures on how to raise the profile within respective funding bodies
To be successful in preparing and implementing a built heritage strategy, local practitioners should be aware not only of regulations, but also of good practices in design, use of suitable materials, and also possible sources of funding.
Another important aspect of built heritage projects and policies is the promotion of built heritage – not only to tourists, but also to residents and possible funders (e.g. grant offering institutions, authorities, private investors)
Promotion to tourists has to be developed in cooperation with respective town’s department. Some good practices in this respect are:
- publication of town’s heritage trails
- participation in networks promoting local, regional, national or international thematic built heritage trials or routes (e.g. European Route of Brick Gothic - http://www.eurob.info/index.php5/1/4).
- organisation of thematic events related to cultural heritage and historic activities, such as reconstruction of battles or important historic meetings, or everyday life of the ancient residents
A successful practice in some countries is to encourage local people or built heritage owners to set up voluntary teams that would take care of the heritage management and maintenance under guidance and support of experts. A well maintained, managed and promoted built heritage can be a driving force for local economy, as increased volume of tourism will create more jobs in retail and services. However, this can work two ways – the flood of tourists can change the town’s identity and contribute to the decline of the built heritage assets, if not managed properly (see ‘Tourism’ component).
Planning is also a crucial issue for small towns with built heritage. Especially in small expanding towns, the planners should ensure that new developments are complementary to existing buildings and public spaces (see ‘Long Term Planning’ and ‘Housing’ components). New developments that are not complementary can, in some situations, seriously diminish the unique identity of the place.
Essential Aspects
One of the most important, but often missed, factors on all levels of preparing policy on built heritage or implementing projects related to the theme is the involvement of various groups of interest and residents. This can be applied on all stages of the project (e.g. identification of built heritage, ideas for appropriate exploitation) and done with use of various methods. The basic methods are workshops and community consultation meetings, but the range of methods is much wider (see ‘Community Dialogue & Engagement’ component).
Another important thing is to work in co-operation with other administrative departments of the town. If built heritage is supposed to contribute to sustainable town’s development, it has to be well linked with other town’s strategies. Practitioners always have to focus on the greater purpose of built heritage preservation or exploitation projects, and never treat them as ultimate goals. The role played by built heritage, and the connections with other town’s strategies, is well depicted by the diagram provided by SusSET’s Greek partners (see below).
Another essential aspect is the sustainability of the character of the built heritage areas. The use and design of built heritage must contribute to the overall sense of place, and planners should be very sensitive in this respect, allowing only activities that support and enhance this character. Therefore, the local practitioners should focus on strategies of preservation and appropriate use of the built heritage located in their towns.
Good practices in this respect include:
- providing guidance and information to the owners or occupiers (e.g.
www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/publications/ownerspublications.htm)
- establishing local regulations with regard to urban design practices (e.g. front signage policy). Also, establishing local regulations and providing guidance on what can and what must not be done in the aspect of extensions, add-ups and alterations to a built heritage piece (e.g. preparing a booklet publication)
- offering incentives to owners for application of good practices and guidance concerning maintenance, conservation and use of built heritage (such as grants, preference loans, awards and prizes)
To ensure that the built heritage is exploited in appropriate way and to the benefit of community, the practitioners should focus on:
- joint thinking on the best purposes and means of exploitation of built heritage. Practitioners should allow the community to influence final solutions
- benchmarking with best practices from elsewhere and applying them to similar cases in the town with consideration of local conditions
Raising the profile of built heritage is very important in order to secure funding. Here again, the local community can contribute significantly to the success of enterprise. Local politicians’ support is of course necessary, but community driven actions are increasingly better perceived by official funding bodies. Also, it can be a good practice to join into networks for better possibilities of promotion within funding bodies, and acquisition of funds, e.g. www.castletomorrow.net (see ‘Networks and Connections’ component).
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