Few would argue that conservation has not been very successful in the last twenty or so years. By and large attitudes toward the care of historic buildings have changed dramatically, not least thanks to the efforts of SAVE. Legislation is now more rigorous, and normally effective, and technical expertise improved and more widely implemented. There is a general acceptance the conservation is a "good thing".
Therefore, in many respects the conservation of historic buildings is now taken for granted. We notice much of this in our work: there are far fewer dramatic cases of destruction, and less press interest in conservation. There is a perception the battle has been won. Consequently, despite, or rather because of, its success, conservation now enjoys a low press profile.
Of course that is not the case, but perhaps there is a need to re-energise conservation. The core objectives will always remain the same: the promotion of correct historic building practices and the prevention of harmful and unnecessary alterations, and decay and neglect. But it may be an opportune moment to re-emphasise the wider benefits of conservation, and its place in wider concerns about the environment. Elsewhere, on the site we have described a new publication that we have been heavily invovled with, Catalytic Conversion. Its objective is to promote the value of conservation to regeneration, housing and sustainable development policy. Conservation must work hard to hammer home the message that conservation is relevant to these issues; indeed, that it should be at the heart of Government policy. In our submission to Chris Smith we explored the same themes, and called for leadership from the Department in promoting this message.
More broadly, historic building conservation ought to be more closely identified with a wider concern for our environment; we should start to build bridges with organisations concerned with protecting the natural environment. It is time historic building conservation recognised itself as a part of a holistic concern for our environment.
