Protecting our Local Heritage

Earlier this year after we had witnessed the destruction of a local landmark by a developer I convened a community conference to discuss how we can protect our local heritage. At this conference a senior local planning officer, Charmian Baker, described the exercise she was undertaking to map local heritage sites in order to examine how they could best be protected. After the conference we encouraged local people to submit their views on what local buildings needed to be preserved. On Saturday I reconvened the community conference to receive a progress report from Charmian and her colleague Nairita Chakraborty. The meeting was very well attended with many local groups and residents’ associations represented. The mapping exercise has been very successful and a comprehensive list of sites already protected or proposed for protection has been produced. The Council will launch a public consultation on the list in the New Year. At the conference we also launched the setting up of a Conservation Panel for Hayes and Harlington. The panel will comprise local volunteers who will meet regularly to advise the council on how to protect our local heritage sites, including advising on planning applications, which may have an impact on local buildings of historical or architectural interest. Please contact me if you are interested in joning the panel. Protecting our local heritage requires constant vigilance and so the message from Saturday’s conference was that we are determined to fight to preserve our local environment. I interviewed Charmian and Nairita.

submitted by John on 18 Oct 2009 at 22:21