Tues 23rd June, 2009

Week 2 and Senior Conservation Officer, Stephen Gardner, presented a fine and fascinating local history of the Canal Corridor.  This was no romantic appreciation though, but a case for Centros to get on with the job of demolition.  Prompted by Council barrister Paul Tucker, Mr Gardner considered both listed and unlisted buildings in terms of their positive, negative, or neutral impact on the townscape.  This was compared with the view of Historic Environment Advisor for English Heritage, Cathy Tuck.  The most frequent difference of opinion between these two heritage experts, revolved around Ms Tuck identifying a building as making a ‘positive’ contribution to ‘townscape value’ where Mr Gardner considered it ‘neutral’ – which means it can go.

English Heritage say harm will be done to the setting of the listed buildings by the proposed plan of surrounding development.  Mr Gardner believed that the design of the new build could be successfully integrated with existing buildings.  Broaching the big question and the Council’s Achilles heel, Paul Tucker asked Mr Gardner what effect did he think the pedestrian link bridge would have on the setting of Stonewell: “Neutral” came the reply.  Not surprisingly this diverges strongly from the view held by English Heritage, that the bridge will ‘blight’ the setting.

Following a break for lunch Mr Gardner was then cross examined by English Heritage barrister, Eian Claws, who strove for some pre-emptive demolition work of his own.  Mr Gardner had stated that the link bridge would create a ‘change’ to the setting of Stonewell.  Pressed on this point by Eian Claws, and facilitated by an intervention from Inspector Gray, Mr Gardner eventually conceded that the bridge would result in a ‘radical change’ to its immediate setting.  He maintained, however, that this would not affect the ‘special character’ of the Canal Corridor conservation area.  This assertion was subjected to intense cross examination.  How is it possible to radically change one part without affecting the whole?  This question was only resolved by another intervention from Inspector Gray.  He analysed it in order to arrive at a conclusion.  Just what that conclusion was or will be remains for the Inspector to know and for the rest of us to wonder.      

Mark Rotherham