1. NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING & THE HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT BOSCOMBE & POKESDOWN David Stuart Historic Places Adviser Historic England South West

2. Knowing Your Place

3. Agenda Heritage & Neighbourhood Planning Town Centres Place Branding
Role of HE & DS

4. What are the benefits of including the historic environment in a Neighbourhood Plan?
Including heritage in your Neighbourhood Plan can:
Help to protect and conserve those areas which are valued locally
Ensure that new development takes account of local distinctiveness
Identify opportunities for enhancement, growth and sustainable development
A Neighbourhood Plan may help to guide how heritage can be conserved whilst adapting it to modern needs
What are the benefits of including the historic environment in a Neighbourhood Plan?
Heritage informs local distinctiveness
It is often a place’s heritage that makes it locally distinctive / What makes a place special and unique
This gives people a sense of identity and pride in a place
The historic environment can be a powerful tool for delivering regeneration and providing spaces for local businesses, community facilities and other activities
Neighbourhood Plans can influence new design and flag up those eyesore sites or buildings, where something better could be appropriate
Image: Leopold Square, Sheffield
You may wish to use a local example

5. Getting Started 1 A sound evidence base
Any policies you include in a Neighbourhood Plan should be based on appropriate evidence. Information about how a place has developed and evolved is often a key element
There is a wide range of information about the historic environment that is available online including:
Local Authority Historic Environment Record
National Heritage List for England
Heritage at Risk Register
Local groups such as the local civic society and local history society may also hold information and could usefully be involved
The Historic England website provides a wealth of additional advice and guidance:
Getting Started 1
A sound evidence base
Any policies you include in a Neighbourhood Plan should be based on appropriate evidence. Information about how a place has developed and evolved is often a key element
This could include a description of the historic character of the area and an assessment of its condition and vulnerability
Together with the identification of individual heritage assets, for example:
Designated Heritage Assets - World Heritage Sites, Scheduled Monuments, Listed Buildings, Registered Parks & Gardens, Conservation Areas, Registered Battlefields
Locally Listed Heritage Assets - Locally Listed Buildings, Local Historic Parks & Gardens
Heritage assets important to the community, but not designated, such as archaeological sites
Although the Historic England publication ‘Knowing Your Place’ largely focuses on parish plans and village design statements in rural areas it usefully shows the kinds of information that might be included in a Neighbourhood Plan
First published in 2011 it will be updated to include urban areas and to reflect the new measures contained in the 2011 Localism Act

6. Getting Started II Enhancing your evidence base
You can enhance your evidence base by undertaking a survey of your local area Placecheck (
a user friendly tool designed to help communities identify what they like, dislike, what can be improved on and what the area needs in terms of development for the benefit of the community
Consider the need for further more detailed assessment
Historic England guidance ‘Understanding Place: An Introduction’ describes a range of other methods together with their possible application:
Enhancing your evidence base
Enhancing your evidence base:
Placecheck is a user friendly tool designed to help communities to identify what they like, dislike, what can be improved on and what the area needs in terms of development for the benefit of the community
In addition to your initial Placecheck you may wish to carry out a more detailed assessment of the local character of your area which will make your Plan more comprehensive and robust
A range of other methods and their possible application are described in ‘Understanding Place: An Introduction’ which acts as a signpost to other help and advice including practical case studies
Use local images if available

7. Improving your Area From evidence to action:
Small scale improvements to enhance the appearance of the area
Design guidance
Promoting best practice in conservation and reuse
Encouraging investment and enhancement
Identifying features for protection
Undertaking a conservation area appraisal, review or suggesting new conservation areas, the creation of a local heritage list or local buildings at risk survey
The evidence developed through a ‘Placecheck’ and/or other assessments might lead you to think about the following actions, although a Neighbourhood Plan may not be the best way to take these forward
Small scale improvements to enhance the appearance of the streets and public space
Preparing guidance on the design of new development where it may affect a places character
Promoting best practice in the conservation and reuse of local heritage assets and their settings
Encouraging investment and enhancement of particular buildings and spaces especially those that are at risk
Considering whether any buildings and spaces are worthy of protection through national or local designation
Undertaking a conservation area appraisal, review or suggesting new conservation areas, the creation of a local heritage list or local buildings at risk survey
Use local images if available

8. Neighbourhood Plans Potential scope and content:
Broad environmental issues
Analysis of the historic character of the area
Identify nationally and locally designated heritage assets
Policies to promote locally distinctive development and to manage heritage assets
Opportunities to conserve, repair and bring heritage assets back into use
Investment opportunities
Site specific considerations
Identify buildings and spaces worthy of protection
If you are considering a Neighbourhood Plan, there may be opportunities to enhance your area and conserve its heritage. This could include a section on the historic environment which draws on the evidence you have gathered together with any surveys/assessments:
Potential Scope and Content:-
Considers the environmental issues the Plan seeks to address
Provides an analysis of the historic character of the area highlighting its contribution to the development and appearance of the place
Identifies nationally and locally designated heritage assets, and a discussion of the contribution they make to local character
Sets out policies to promote locally distinctive development in terms of scale and materials and to manage the settings of heritage assets or important views
Highlights opportunities to conserve, repair and bring heritage assets back into use, especially those that are at risk
Possible investment opportunities alongside the delivery of new development, for example through Neighbourhood Level Community Infrastructure Levy spending, Planning Contributions and other sources of funding
Sets out any particular historic environment considerations to be taken into account when seeking to develop particular sites
Identifies buildings and spaces that are worthy of protection through national or local designation, the possibility of new or revised conservation areas together with conservation area appraisals, the need for a local heritage list or local buildings at risk survey

9. Who do I Contact?
Contact your local authority planning [POLICY?] team and historic environment officers before getting started
Don’t forget - there is a duty to consult Historic England on any Neighbourhood Plan before submitting it to your local authority where you consider our interests to be affected
The local authority will be able to advise you whether our interests may be affected
Consult Historic England as early in the plan-making process as possible
The local authority planning [POLICY] team and historic buildings conservation officer are best placed to help you in developing your Neighbourhood Plan and, in particular, how the [strategy?] might address the areas heritage assets. It is also advisable to contact staff at the local authority archaeological advisory service who give advice on archaeological matters and maintain the Historic Environment Record [OK?]
There is a duty to consult Historic England on any Neighbourhood Plan before submitting it to your local authority where you consider our interests to be affected [AMEND??]
The local authority will be able to advise you whether our interests are likely to be affected
When consulting Historic England it always is advisable to do this as early in the plan-making process as possible
Use local images if available

10. Historic Environment Checklist
Does the area include any heritage assets?
Have you consulted the local Historic Environment Record?
Have you discussed your proposals for a Plan with the local authority historic environment advisers/ planning [policy] team?
Does the Plan have a clear vision for the historic environment?
How can the historic environment / heritage assets be used to achieve your overall aspirations for development?
Does the area to be covered by the Plan include any heritage assets?
Has consideration been given to the Historic Environment Record, or other available studies of local character which could inform the Plan?
Have you discussed your proposals for a Plan with your local authority historic environment advisers and planning [POLICY?] team?
Does the Plan have a clear vision for the historic environment and what are the key conservation issues?
How can the historic environment/heritage assets be used to help achieve your overall aspirations for development?
Use local images where available

11. Historic Environment Checklist
What are the opportunities for protection, enhancement and greater appreciation of the historic environment?
Have local characteristics been considered as part of design policies?
What impact will the proposals have on heritage assets, their settings or local character?
Have you considered heritage assets at risk and whether proposals in the Plan could utilise these assets?
In light of the potential impacts on heritage assets have you consulted Historic England and sought their advice?
What are the opportunities for protection, enhancement and greater understanding or appreciation of the historic environment, for example through development management, targeted investment or enhanced national and local designation?
Have local characteristics – materials, styles, scale – been considered as part of the design policies, and how can new development be made locally distinctive?
What impact will the proposals have on heritage assets, their settings or local character?
Has consideration been given to Historic England’s ‘Heritage at Risk Register’, local authority Buildings at Risk Registers and whether proposals in the Plan could utilise these assets?
In light of the potential impacts on the heritage assets have you consulted Historic England and sought their advice

12. Town Centres Quality Totality of experience
Local distinctiveness / Place Branding
Growth of Leisure / Recreation / Culture
Keynsham’s role?
Authenticity
Capitalise on existing character ie chocolate

13. Place Branding
Place branding focuses on developing, communicating and managing the perception of a place and is often used interchangeably with the term ‘place marketing’. Place brands build on the distinctiveness, character and unique identity of a place.

14. Over the long term, places with strong, distinctive identities are more likely to prosper than places without them
Robert Solow, Economist and Nobel laureate, in Economics of Uniqueness 2012

15. What makes Boscombe & Pokesdown special or unique?
What you like or don’t like about it?
What can you make more of?
What could be done to enhance it?
What would you like to put in your Neighbourhood Plan?
What about complementary initiatives?
ie CAMP, BID
DELIVERY - need for strategy in order to attract external funding
eg BID

16. Further Resources Historic England www.historcengland.org.uk
Department for Communities and Local Government
Neighbourhood Planning Road Map
Neighbourhood Planning Community Knowledge Hubhttp://planning.communityknowledgehub.org.uk/
Forum for Neighbourhood Planning
LinkedIn Neighbourhood Planning Group
Planning Advisory Service
The Historic England website contains a wealth of additional help and advice on how the historic environment can successfully contribute to the neighbourhood planning process as well as highlighting key resources for further information
Government has produced a guidance note on neighbourhood planning together with more detailed supporting advice which provides links to the neighbourhood planning section in the Planning Practice Guidance. It also describes the support and grants that have been made available from DCLG and lists other sources of information including the Departments regular bulletins
There is a wide variety of advice and guidance on neighbourhood planning available online provided by various other organisations:
Locality have produced a Neighbourhood Planning Road Map
They host the Neighbourhood Planning Community Knowledge Hub
Planning Aid provides a Forum for Neighbourhood Planning and publishes regular e-bulletins
There is also a LinkedIn Neighbourhood Planning Group
Further material which is aimed at local authorities is available from the Planning Advisory Service