HERITAGE STUDIES
"Understanding the past, planning for the future"
Our Bespoke Service
Our in-house expertise allows us to provide heritage studies and statements for any listed building project, digging into the history and making sense of current layouts and details. This may be required out of necessity to support a planning application or purely for building occupiers curiosity. We also assist with Preliminary Archaeological Assessment where required with projects in areas of High Archaeological potential.
This is a fully bespoke service aimed squarely at listed building owners, involving site visits and walkarounds with clients, extensive research into archived data and coordination with local records to provide a thorough understanding of a buildings evolution.
Reports can be fully structured, in summary format for easier reading, or in a heritage statement format that supports potential planning applications - more on heritage statements below.
When is a heritage statement required?
A heritage statement should accompany planning applications for:
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substantial or total demolition of a building in a conservation area,
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works to buildings on the local list,
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works affecting the setting of a listed building or a conservation area, and
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all listed building applications.
What information should be included in a heritage statement?
Justification should be proposal under the criteria set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.
This should provide information about:
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the significance of the heritage asset affected, including any contribution made by their setting,
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the principles of and justification for the proposed works, and
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the impact of the proposal on the significance of a heritage asset, does it cause a lot of harm or total loss of significance.
The information should explain:
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the sources that you have considered,
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the expertise that you have consulted, and
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the steps that have been taken to avoid or minimise any adverse impacts on the significance of the asset.
If the proposed works would cause substantial harm or total loss of significance, a method statement and justification in line with National Planning Policy Framework should be provided. The type and amount of detail required will vary according to the particular circumstances of each application.
We regularly complete in-depth heritage statements for our clients, which involve many hours of research on a building. For assistance with your project please get in touch.
