Angela Dunbar is an associate director in the Belfast office of planning and urban design consultancy Turley Associates. adunbar@turleyassociates.co.uk
The plight of heritage property in Northern Ireland made headlines over recent months following a spate of suspected arson attacks on protected properties and deliberate damage from rogue developers. So worried is the Northern Ireland government that its Environment Minister, Alex Attwood, has held two heritage crime summits to try and resolve the problems. Tough sanctions are proposed.
The planning regime in the province is currently under reform, with a shift in power from central to local government that should deliver more focused and timely decisions on heritage regeneration projects. While we await the transfer of power this should not however deter developers from bringing forward schemes involving protected property; local authorities recognise that often the best way to secure the long term future of heritage assets is to find economically viable new uses.
The onus is on developers to bring forward schemes that seek to make the most of our heritage assets. The planning regime provides the necessary checks and balances of protection.
There is the temptation for the Northern Ireland Assembly to react with stronger heritage protections that wrap such sites and buildings in cotton wool - costly curiosities in our communities. Our heritage can provide an opportunity to deliver significant regeneration benefits; not just the retention of the physical bricks and mortar, but genuine social and economic gains.
The Linen Mill is a good example of developers doing just this. It is a heritage led regeneration proposal that demonstrates how a private developer is bringing forward a scheme with the support of statutory bodies, and in particular the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, to deliver a future for one of Northern Ireland's oldest industrial sites.
The William Clark & Sons Linen Mill is one of the longest continuously operating industrial sites in the region with its unique process of beetling - the finishing of linen by pressing the material to give it a flat and lustrous effect. The complex has been involved in the linen manufacturing business since 1736. .
Today large parts of the mill complex are either vacant or derelict as the operational needs of the existing business can be accommodated within a smaller area. A proposal currently being promoted by JHT (Upperlands) Ltd seeks to ensure that this prized asset is safeguarded for future generations with key buildings reused in a sympathetic manner for residential units, exhibition space, community facilities and employment opportunities. The proposal will not only revive the village of Upperlands, but will inject an estimated £27 million into the local economy as well as providing for 200 construction jobs.
There can surely be no better way to protect our built heritage than for developers, planners and government to work together to ensure that these important buildings are given a new lease of life and actively incorporated into neighbourhoods.
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