ASSESSING A CONSERVATION PLAN

SINS

VIRTUES

General Points

·         Adds little to knowledge

·         A post hoc justification of a scheme

·         Difficult to read

·         Partisan – only considers one of two aspects of site

·         Bitty – pieces of information all over the place which have not been drawn together

·         Will genuinely help with management of the site

·         A review of the significance of the site and how that will be retained in any future use, alteration, repair or development

·         Slim, well illustrated, key information in appendices

·         Genuinely integrates all aspects of heritage

·         Evidence for single authorship (or good editing) and logical train of thought

Introduction

·         No idea who wrote the plan, when and why

·         Sets out circumstances of plan clearly

Understanding the Site

·         Limited to one aspect of site

·         Heavily historical

·         Text heavy and no structure

·         Poorly illustrated

·         No time depth

·         Purports to be thorough

·         Limited piece of new research

·         One off

·         Covers all aspects of site

·         Ties history to fabric

·         Well organized

·         Systematic (e.g. gazetteer)

·         Makes good use of graphics

·         Phasing set out clearly

·         Gaps identified

·         Makes use of all existing information

·         Can be added to as new information arises

Assessment of Significance

·         Limited to a few broad values

·         Unrelated to fabric

·         Rigid and incomprehensible

·         Ignored in rest of plan

·         Wide ranging and imaginative

·         Tied to the fabric

·         Relevant and useful

·         Arguments inform remainder of plan

Issues / Vulnerability

·         This section ignored

·         Limited to a few minor points

·         Section used to extol the virtue of the scheme or organization

·         Omits key points

·         Open about issues

·         Thorough consideration of vulnerability

·         Considers positive and negative issues

·         Open to past mistakes

·         Linked to arguments about significance

Policies

·         A few very general policies

·         Ignores existing legislative and policy framework

·         Narrow

·         Rigid

·         Tellus nothing new

·         Vague

·          No relation to earlier text or arguments

Policies include:

·         General policies

·         Issue based policies

·         Area specific policies

·         Flexible

·         Will influence future work

·         Practical

·         Directly tied into significance / vulnerability

Adoption and Review

No evidence for consultation

No evidence that plan will be used

No proposals for review

No evidence of adoption by key body

No evidence that the process will be continued

Wide consultation

Evidence for the plan influencing other work

Timetable for review

Adoption clearly set out

Makes clear that conservation plan is beginning of process

Strategy / proposals

Integrated into conservation plan

Ignore results of conservation plan

No impact assessment

Separate from plan

Make use of results of conservation plan

Clear impact assessment which measures proposals against plan and suggests mitigation