Local government is just as important to listed building owners as Westminster and Whitehall. The way that regulations are interpreted and implemented by your council can have just as much of an impact on you as major policy changes. As part of our political campaign, the Club are starting to work on a local level with owners who are facing persistent struggles with their council. Over the coming months we will be reaching out to owners and starting to organise. The goal is to bring owners together and put more pressure on local authorities to deliver a better
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Answer from The Scottish Government
One of the ways that the Club can place pressure on government is to write to ministers. Last month we wrote to Kevin Stewart MSP, minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning. Writing to ministers almost always creates a response and leads to the ministry officially stating it’s position. In our letter we asked for their present policy on heritage and planning. The answer (opposite) is from one of the civil servants within the ministry, and while it can be seen as frustrating it does open a dialogue with Holyrood. The Club will be answering in firm tones about
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Campaign Guide
We are happy to announce that our guide to our political campaign is now available. This sets out why we need a political campaign, and how we are putting pressure on all levels of government to support listed building owners. You can click here to download the digital version. For those who prefer a printed copy, you can contact the Club to request a paper guide. You can either e-mail us on campaign@lpoc.co.uk or call us on 01795 844939.
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Holyrood Events
Our campaign in Holyrood continues to see tangible results, thanks to the support of Graham Simpson MSP, the shadow housing minister who we met with earlier this month. His support enables us to make use of Holyrood as a venue, and to officially invite other MSPs to events. Later this year we will be holding several high profile events for our Scottish members in Holyrood, where you will have the opportunity to meet with MSPs and tell them directly about the challenges you face. This will help to show the impact that inaction is having on individual owners and ensure
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Meeting in Holyrood
The Club are happy to report our meeting with Graham Simpson MSP, shadow housing minister in the Scottish Parliament on the 16th of May. Of course it’s always positive when parliamentarians want to meet with us, but this was a particularly productive meeting for the Club. Graham already has some experience with listed buildings, as part of his work on the Tenement Working Group, so he already had a good understanding of the kinds of issues owners face in Scotland. We expect this will be the first of many trips to Edinburgh in the coming months and we look forward
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Cross Party Group in the National Assembly
The Club are happy to report that our efforts to form a Cross Party Group in the Welsh Assembly have been successful. We visited the Assembly in Cardiff on the 30th of April to meet with Dr Dai Lloyd AM of Plaid Cymru. His support, along with Janet Finch-Saunders of the Welsh Conservatives and Mike Hedges of the Labour party means that we can move ahead with an initial meeting, and as a result the group can be officially recognised. This is a great success both for our members in Wales as well as in the whole UK. It’s extremely
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Parliamentary Business
It’s been a busy time in Westminster over the past few months, but our campaign continues to press for change. We’ve focused our efforts on Whitehall in the past weeks, looking at the regulations and guidelines that impact listed buildings. We have been particularly pursuing the issue of Local Listed Building Consent Orders; instruments that would allow owners to carry out minor works without needing to submit an application. We believe that this system offers the potential for huge reductions in paperwork and major cost savings. The Club has submitted a number of Freedom of Information requests to government departments
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Mid Wales Conservation Forum
We are happy to report that the Club has been invited to the Mid and West Wales Conservation Officers Forum. We’ll be attending to meet the heritage professionals who are at the forefront of listed building consent applications in the region, and to discuss the challenges that they face working in the present system. While the Club always has our members interests very much at heart, we see councils and planning officials very much as our partners in creating reforms. High costs for owners lead to high costs for councils, and we believe we can find common sense answers to
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Scottish Campaign
It’s been a quiet week or so for our campaign, but not one we’ve wasted. We have been laying the preparations for our launch into Scotland, something that has taken a bit more work than in Wales. In Wales setting up cross party groups is, relative to Scotland, quite easy and only requires three parties to be members. In Scotland this particular requirement is more stringent, requiring all five parties to be represented. We decided to take the time to research and plan our approach to ensure that we would garner support from all ends of the political spectrum. However,
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Meeting with Welsh Minister in Brecon
We’re happy to report our meeting with Kirsty Williams, AM for Brecon and Welsh Minister for Education. We took a drive up to Brecon on Friday the 5th and met to discuss the challenges facing listed building owners today. Brecon has over 500 listed buildings within a mile of the town centre, including the Liberal Democrat offices we met at, so clearly listed buildings are a big deal. We were really happy to see Kirsty already had a good understanding of the issues that listed building owners face and was keen to work towards helping them. While she is a
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