An eye on planning Conservation Areas under the microscope continued
Adviser, English Heritage) gave an overview of new planning policies (www.englishheritage.org.uk ) on issues such as climate change and energy conservation in relation to older buildings. It was surprising to learn that well-maintained traditional sash windows can perform well, and the case for retaining them rather than replacing with UPVC is strong. David emphasised the importance of gathering evidence on the historic environment. John Preston, Historic Environment Manager for Cambridge later stressed that local people can play a vital role in helping, for example, to document the features of the environment to form the backbone of the Conservation Area appraisal document. Other speakers were Diana Oviatt-Ham, Principal Tree Officer for Cambridge, who underlined the value of trees in retaining the special character of a place, and architect Oliver Caroe, who maintained that the historic environment must play its part in helping to reduce the impact of climate change. Summing up, Peter Landshoff pointed to the increasingly important role the voluntary sector will play as government budgets are pruned. His final
if you want to conserve and enhance your area, don t wait to be asked, get involved now with your local civic society. rallying cry was
A full report of the seminar can be found on our website.
Getting involved . CambridgePPF continues to get involved and campaign for good practice. Can you help with our efforts to support initiatives to reduce street clutter?
June 2004
July 2010
Taking a lead from the National Civic Voice Street Pride campaign, - Cambridge Past, Present & Future is keen to support City and County Council initiatives to reduce street clutter in the beautiful City of Cambridge and surrounding villages. There are already inspiring guidelines from English Heritage, Civic Voice, DfT, and cycling groups. CambridgePPF wants to provide a focal point and act to encourage good practice and circulate ideas. Penny Heath, a member of the CambridgePPFs Heritage Working Group, attended a workshop in London in June 2010, organised by Civic Voice which gave a useful overview of survey techniques, complexity of ownership, lack of public influence and a campaign strategy framework. For example - Did you know that the only two street elements that require formal public consultation, are shop fronts and shop signs? As well as removing clutter, CambridgePPF believes new road and cycle schemes should be sensitive and worthy of our historic streetscape and pathways and where they are
routed through green spaces they should reflect a more rural nature. Cambridge as a historic and internationally significant city deserves the very best of modern solutions. We are looking for people who would like to join a working group to get this project off the ground. Can you join us? Plans are to build a visual website page and invite members to send in images of good and bad elements of street design To find out more, please contact Street Pride working group members, Carolin Gรถhler or Penny Heath at ceo@cambridgeppf.org CambridgePPF is one of 230 civic societies that have joined Civic Voice, the newly-launched successor to the Civic Trust, which came to an untimely end last year. See: www.civicvoice.org.uk Among its campaigns are Street Pride, in which we are actively participating. We are continuing to take the lead with the East of England Civic Societies: see the CambridgePPF web page.
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