HERITAGE has been made an election issue. The National Trust of Guernsey and the Guernsey Heritage Trust want electors to choose candidates who promise to safeguard the island’s beauty, history and heritage.
The call came as the National Trust yesterday criticised the efforts of the Heritage Committee - ‘toothless’ because of the lack of necessary enforcement laws - to protect some of the island’s most historic buildings.
The lack of importance accorded heritage by the States has caused great concern and seemed to be getting worse, National Trust president Michael Eades warned yesterday.
He cited the ‘parlous state of the Markets’ as an example.
Guernsey’s heritage was being treated with less regard than a decade or two ago, he said.
‘We seem as an island to be going backwards and the people of the island are getting more and more concerned.
‘The Heritage Committee is completely toothless because it does not have in place the necessary enforcement laws. The States is too full of people with vested interests and they are not the sort of people who would favour strict powers on heritage,’ said Advocate Eades.
‘There is certainly not enough enforcement legislation to protect the built environment. Even if the new [planning] law - if it is passed - will have better enforcement procedures, will the political will be there to actually use them?
‘The importance of planning issues will be subsumed unless States members take an active interest to ensure we do not lose any more of the island’s heritage,’ he said.
‘There is an issue of the way planning generally is buried in a large ministry where before, love it or hate it, the IDC was a standalone States committee, as was the Heritage Committee.’
Much would depend on the ministers in the new government, on the planning department and the emphasis and interest in planning and heritage issues, he said.
They might be tempted to revert to other parts of their rather large brief, he feared.
Heritage would be part of the new planning department and not a standalone committee scrutinising IDC decisions; this was a danger in itself, he said.
‘I would like to see States members committed to protecting the island’s heritage as an absolute first consideration in their decision-making process whatever the decision, rather than the last thing they seem to bear in mind.’
Andrew Dyke, chairman of the National Trust Buildings Committee, said that the States had an ‘appalling’ record on built heritage, despite being the owner and guardian of many of the island’s most important buildings.
He described the demolition of the 1811 prison building as a ’scandal’ and said it did not give any confidence in the future preservation of built heritage.
And he said the Heritage Committee felt demoralised by the way the States has dealt with historical buildings.
The two trusts will support only candidates who agree to subscribe to the tenets of the 2003 Edinburgh Declaration.
One of its many facets calls on governments and non-governmental organisations ‘to work together more closely to address the problem of the progressive loss of culture and natural heritage’.
Both should develop joint initiatives to raise public understanding and concern, said the declaration.
The trusts intend to monitor the actions and decisions of elected candidates; it has given candidates until Wednesday 14 April to state their positions.
They want the island’s heritage to be a major issue in the run-up to polling day.
Advocate Eades told a press conference at St James yesterday that the National Trust had certain statutory objectives.
‘These are summed up in our mission statement which says the trust aims to preserve and enhance the island’s natural beauty, its historic buildings and its heritage. The tenets of the Edinburgh Declaration chime in perfectly with this,’ he said.
Architectural historian Marcus Binney recently accused the States of being ‘careless in their heritage’ - he labelled the Markets redevelopment as ‘an ill considered property deal’ and told Times newspaper readers that the ‘remarkable’ Regency prison ‘has been bulldozed’.
Article posted on 31st March, 2004 - 12.00am
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