1. Question and Answer Session Notes from Resilient Heritage Conference
Simon Machen asked about 120 of the Localism Bill and how it relates to PPS5, the idea of financial
consideration in planning applications.
David Tomback responded that the policy is still changing and hope that link to enabling development
policy will remain
Question of whether social media can drive social enterprise: James Mott responded: Social media
has gone in a cycle, 2 years ago there was a flurry of activity, this died down and people got
disillusioned, but things have now developed and increased significantly and there are huge
opportunities. The heritage sector now has thousands of people & organisations using twitter, but
there is still a lot of misinformation about it. Note that you still need to actually meet people in person
to move projects forward. Heritage sector needs more of a voice.
Oliver Caroe – I feel like an old dog being taught new tricks, how do we get the Skills?
Clr Lee mentioned NEET projects and capacity building within Peterborough. Note that social media
doesn’t use capital only human resources. Skilling up will get harder.
Heather Hilburn said organisations should use social media to extend the experiences of the sites.
Toby from the Country Houses Foundation noted that they were one of the undersubscribed funders
mentioned by Ian Rice in his presentation. The Country Houses Foundation is a charitable grant
giving foundation. The main aims of the Foundation are to support the preservation of buildings of
historic or architectural significance together with their gardens and grounds, for the public benefit.
http://www.countryhousesfoundation.org.uk/
David Tomback noted that guidance on redundant buildings will be coming out in September/ October
from English Heritage
Steve Bowyer asked if a new language for heritage was needed as it is not understood by the general
public.
James Mott from Projectbook responded that they did a survey of the language used and discovered
people don’t talk about ‘conserving’ or ‘restoring’ properties but of ‘doing them up’.
Jonathan Foyle gave the broadcast media perspective that ‘history’ is not popular, conservation is a
bit niche as a concept and that the word ‘restoration’ usually stands in for ‘refurbishment’. Canny
broadcasters know what makes people switch on and off and avoid conservation, they miss apply
words and use quite specific terminology out of context to create interest.
SB – The Environmental Movement became the Green Movement, does the Heritage Movement
need a re-brand, not brown movement, obviously.
James Mott – how about ‘we do sexy buildings?!’
Robyn Llewellyn – is it the word heritage itself that is the issue? Do we need to redefine it, it stretches
from Froglife to Stowe for example.
Ivan Cutting – arts venues have not been mentioned today, these make excellent site specific spaces
for theatre
There was a question about whether we would miss Canterbury Cathedral if it was knocked down
today (from a Conservation Officer!). Jonathan Foyle said that we always search for origins in
buildings and that the fact a building has lived gives it value.
Ian Rice pointed out that before it became a symbol of the blitz, there had been a risk of demolition for
St Pauls in the 1930s.

2. RL – HLF doesn’t define heritage, applicants make the case for what heritage is and how the
community values the site
Note that need historic buildings to take account of the Green Deal.
David Jost said that Wetherspoons turns old buildings into working pubs, as do Ask
JF noted it could be good, better to be pubs than retails as it involved less fixtures and fittings being
nailed to fabric, and more moveable changes
Toby Wood noted that heritage sites as places of education was another important facet of their use.
Sara Blair Maning noted that children are the audience of the future for sites
Clara Willetts mentioned Construction Ambassadors
(http://www.cic.org.uk/seast/ConAmbassadorsbrochure.pdf) who understand through using their
hands, as well as http://www.hestem.ac.uk/news/class-your-own-sustainable-workshops Class of
Your Own workshops which look at the process of construction.
There was a discussion about alternatives to lead and note that photovoltaic lead solution is being
developed.