Joint Meeting of the London Borough Representatives and London Amenity Societies
May 20, 2010
On May 20th HoLT, in association with the Institute of Historic Building Conservation and English Heritage, hosted the annual Borough Conservation Officers Conference at Westminster City Hall. Over 80 people attended, and the proceedings were opened by HoLT Trustee and Westminster Cllr Robert Davis DL, who gave an overview of Westminster's heritage strategy in the wake of recessionary pressures and the need to raise the bar of design when placing new developments side by side with Westminster's world-renowned heritage sites.
The keynote speaker was the new Minister for Culture and HoLT trustee Ed Vaizey MP, who praised the work of HoLT pointing out that it is "small organisations like this [HoLT] that make a huge amount of difference." Ed will not be responsible for heritage in his Culture portfolio, as heritage has been twinned with tourism and will be overseen by his colleague John Penrose. At this early stage in the new government he was unable to tell us exactly what the new government's plans would be for heritage, but he acknowledged that "heritage is both the past and the future..." and that "...restored buildings carry out modern functions."
Ed Vaizey MP speaks to the Conference
He thanked everyone at the conference for the "tireless work" they do "to promote and protect heritage". Since he will not be responsible for heritage, Ed will be able to stay on as a trustee of HoLT and support our work in the future. Although everyone at the conference was concerned about budget cuts and how the recession will affect London's heritage, everyone seemed to feel enormously positive that a government Minister was on hand to express support for the efforts of London's conservation officers and amenity societies.
A full agenda with speakers is available to download below.