2008 Yearbook

i n r e v i e w 27 ALL HISTORY IS HERE! Having joined EHTF in September 1997 Associate Member CHRIS WINTER currently directs and manages the strategic and operational activities of EHTF. Twenty years ago a small group of chief planning officers (as they were then known) decided that they shared common problems that were not fully addressed by their various professional affiliations. That was the beginning of the English Historic Towns Forum (EHTF), an organisation which has grown over the intervening years to embrace all disciplines and all sectors. In fact, EHTF goes out of its way to promote inter-disciplinary and inter-sector working in order to achieve best practice in the management of historic towns. While retaining this holistic overview, the forum focuses on specific issues which impact on towns and cities across the country. Retail development, transport and traffic management, tourism and conservation have all been the focus of good practice guidance documents, conferences and seminars which continue to offer practitioners the opportunity to come together to exchange information and to hear from experts in the field. In 2007 alone we delivered four conferences on a range of subjects. In Shrewsbury we looked at the implications of the Transport Innovation Fund and revisited one of the four original Historic Core Zone Projects (1998), exemplar schemes that showed how we can integrate transport issues better with our historic places. This campaign led to increasing interest in the issues from many organisations. We were delighted to support Streets for All, English Heritage’s streetscape manuals, which set out the principles of good practice for street management (2005) and Manual for Streets (2007), the joint project by the UK’s Department for Transport and the Department for Communities and Local Government, to develop guidance for a range of practitioners involved in the planning, design, provision and approval of new residential streets. Of course we continue to push for an extension of the design principles in high streets as well as residential streets. The retail offer of many historic towns has a huge impact on their economic vitality. However, the pressures for change in the sector can be difficult to accommodate, and contemporary developments in historic city centres, designed to respond to these demands, can be very controversial. The emerging ‘Cabot Circus’ at Broadmead in Bristol was the location of an event to explore these issues and to hear from local authority and private sector practitioners how, through a very positive partnership, this scheme had come to fruition. July saw the forum in Leicester to look at streetscape issues. The public realm, street clutter and the plethora of signs and lines which dominate many town centres have reached the top of the agenda since the economic benefits of civic improvements have been demonstrated. The number of people and agencies responsible for our streets is unmanageable - as illustrated by the parlous state of many. By working with other organisations which share these concerns, we have been able to raise awareness and to identify good practice, which is then shared throughout our membership. Seven Stories, the children's book centre in Newcastle upon Tyne brings new life to historic industrial buildings and illustrates the theme of a recent EHTF conference in the city. (Copyright EHTF)