HEAD OF HERITAGE PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
NOVEMBER 2021 Author: Alan Smith
Introduction The newly created role of Head of Heritage Preservation and Development (HOHPD) will be responsible for the development of all the Grade 1, grade 2*, and Grade 2 listed buildings in the city of Liverpool to try and ensure their preservation and their ongoing development. The Head of Heritage Preservation and Development will also review green spaces within the city of Liverpool that are either listed or have historical merit, or require improvement, to help them become centres of cultural activity. The role of Head of Heritage Preservation and Development relates to fund a raising activities and in no way conflicts with the statutory planning division within Liverpool City Council. The critical difference for this post in relation to other Liverpool City Council statutory roles and responsibility will be to develop funding initiatives to be able to deliver on the development of the heritage projects. The Head of Heritage Preservation and Development will raise funding in as wide and as diverse a programme of ways as possible, and to work with local and national heritage groups, friends’ organisations, volunteer groups, corporate organisations, and national funding bodies to raise funds for the various heritage projects.
CROXTETH HALL IS A GRADE II LISTED BUILDING, WITH PARTS DATING BACK TO 1575
HERITAGE PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Core Preservation and Development Strategies The Head of Heritage Preservation and Development will develop the preservation, protection, and where possible, the enhancement of City Halls, including Liverpool Town Hall, Croxteth Hall and Country Park, and St George's Hall and surrounding area. The three principal Halls of Liverpool and their associated estates will be supported through the development of funding projects and collaborations. Projects will be developed by linking in with all the local community groups, trusts, support groups, stakeholders, friends’ organisations, and Councillors to see how a whole range of projects can be developed. The Head of Heritage Preservation and Development will also be supported in the role through the existing organisation's City Halls who already have to assist in their development, such as the Trustees of St George’s Hall, who will have the specific brief to raise funds to ensure the holistic offers of each of the venues are preserved. Similarly, City Halls are also directly supported by Liverpool City Council who support the Halls through Capital Project funding as and when possible, and through the funding of the direct operational services. The Halls are also under the support of the city’s Premises Management unit or Corporate landlord, who manage all the operational support for the venues. Along with Liverpool City Council, there is also a range of partner services that provide support for the Halls in a variety of ways from security through to the care of the lands and estates upkeep.
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Venues at Risk The need for a Head of Heritage Preservation and Development has already become evident by the immediate responses to the post being created. There are numerous organisations and societies that have approached the Head of Heritage Preservation and Development for support or information, and that the range of heritage concerns are not just limited to listed venues but also sometimes to the urban environment which is impacting on the larger community. It is the intention to develop a ‘City Wide’ review of all the city’s renowned heritage content whereby a comprehensive list of all grade 1, grade 2*, and grade 2 buildings, monuments, artifacts, memorials, public realm sites, and green spaces and parks are able to be monitored to record their cultural condition and to see their current state of preservation. Then, if required, a review will be made of what funding would be needed to ensure the heritage sites are able to be maintained, sustained, or have ongoing improvements provided to ensure the survival of the sites going forward.
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Liverpool City Council Plan To ensure the success of the Halls funding targets there needs to be direct support provided by Liverpool City Council so there are shared ambitions for the success of the venues and their ongoing preservation, care, and development. To this end, the City Council has developed six key strategies for the city which will be used in all funding applications, where relevant, so the Halls have a strong synergy with the council’s ambitions. The strategies are as follows:
A healthier, happier, fairer Liverpool for all People are educated to succeed throughout life Safe and thriving neighborhoods A strong and inclusive economy A low carbon, connected and accessible city The most exciting city in the UK
It is expected to use either individual Liverpool City Plan strategies or a combination of the strategies to be included in funding bids to deliver the various projects being developed for the benefit of the wider communities in which the heritage projects are located.
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Nodal Centres of Culture From the initial groundswell of support the post of Head of Heritage Preservation and Development has received the strategy of creating nodal points of culture will be developed. The strategy will be developed around every ward in the city, L1, L2, L3,…L25,…L36, and so on to have their own cultural nodal centres. In consultation with local Councillors, community leaders, and related heritage organisations, friends’ groups and so on, heritage venues in each district will look to be developed to form the cultural hub in that district, creating a local sense of community and pride in the individual wards. Some wards are particularly rich in the heritage legacy they contain; however, some wards have a lack of focus or underdevelopment of their community’s heritage content, and where cultural nodal points do not exist they will be created. By creating cultural hubs it will help communities develop their own projects, develop a sense of pride in their areas, support local organisations to develop their buildings, take care of their public realms, and at the same time protect their cultural buildings, monuments, and artifacts in the wards, whilst creating bespoke cultural destinations. The cultural destinations can also support the cultural event programmes of the city where possible. Green spaces are seen as being ideal driving forces to create nodal centres of heritage and will be used where possible. A significant number of the green spaces in the city are listed or have buildings or content of historical significance. The ambition is to develop the historical content of the green spaces and public realm into destinations, where visitors have a reason to visit the areas. This ambition can be achieved by creating new destination attractions or by reintroducing former animations of the spaces in a new dynamic and contemporary way.
HERITAGE PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Preservation and Development The Head of Heritage Preservation and Development will have the principal remit to raise funds for the preservation and development of heritage projects. The fundamental difference for the role of Head of Heritage Preservation and Development to that of other key council functions, including highways, parks and gardens, planning, and other principal and vital council services, is that, where these services have staff with the training and expertise in managing planning permissions and legal compliance to the public realms ongoing development to advise and control public and private development, the Head of Heritage Preservation and Development will have the remit to raise funds for heritage projects and their preservation and development for any that are suitable to obtain support, thereby directly assisting in the city’s heritage offer. It is expected that that the Head of Heritage Preservation and Development will provide heritage preservation and development in three principal ways:
Fundraising Key to all the role of Head of Heritage Preservation and Development is the development of income streams to be able to fund the heritage projects that need development. The funding can be achieved in several ways. Primary Funding This will be achieved by sourcing funding via local and national funding organisations, principally through funding applications to raise capital revenue. Individual donors will be approached to support the heritage projects which may be of specific interest to their organisational objectives or personal goals.
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Similarly, there will be support sourced from companies and organisations who may wish to champion cultural projects through their specific Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR). There will also be direct funding campaigns and events that will have the specific tasks to raise funds for a particular heritage project. Any funding that will be received will be scrutinised via the council’s existing procurement processes and by obtaining Liverpool City Council’s cabinet approval to accept the funds.
All funds that are received from major fundraising organisations will have a dedicated project manager. Secondary Funding Secondary funding will be mainly in the form of revenue income and will be achieved as a direct result of primary funding being developed. The primary funding will create a commercial legacy that enables heritage venues to develop heritage projects to allow venues to become selfsustaining and commercially resilient. The initial capital development of the heritage venue will also lead to the potential to create new revenue business opportunities, develop new and varied revenue income streams, new events where revenue can be raised, and where possible create new employment opportunities.
Tertiary Income The creation of funding circles and their development will be delivered in several ways, principally by obtaining support from within social groups and organisations, local societies, bespoke fundraising events, and city-wide funding projects to allow local communities to develop the projects they wish to see supported.
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Funding Circles Through the support of key partner organisations, ‘funding circles’ will be created to raise the income needed to develop heritage preservation and development projects. The funding circles will be created to attract regular funding donations to heritage to allow funds to be developed to address the various heritage projects. The creation of funding circles and their development will be delivered in several ways, principally by obtaining support from within social groups and organisations, local societies, bespoke fundraising events, and city-wide funding projects to allow local communities to develop the projects they wish to see supported. Funding circles will also promote cultivation receptions and other fundraising events where one-off donations can be made to support the heritage projects, as well as the establishment of long term donors. Companies, individual organisations, and philanthropists will also be approached to see if the development of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) directed to support the development of heritage in the city. It is envisaged that the funding will be achieved to support projects in two main ways:
Funding Project
Raise Funds
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Find Project
HERITAGE PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
The normal process will be to fund for an existing heritage project that needs preservation and development.
However, through funding circles there will be several ways to cultivate income including from donations, gifts in kind and bespoke events. It will also be the case that funds will be raised which can then be used to identify projects in need to be funded.
The profile of Heritage in the city The Head of Heritage Preservation and Development will look to campaign using all social media and press avenues to promote heritage preservation and development in the city. This will allow the profile of the role to be a catalyst to raise funds. Key funding strategies will be developed to enable regular funding streams to be developed. It is expected to target two key dates in the calendar year to develop large scale funding donations. These are National World Heritage Day 18 April 2022, and Liverpool Day on 28 August 2022 (celebrating when Liverpool had been founded in 1207. It is the aim to have funding campaigns leading up to key each day where donors can contribute to heritage projects once they have been made aware of the projects and have the know-how and where to donate. The dates will have fundraising campaigns created in the build-up to each date to raise awareness and achieve donations.
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UNESCO UNESCO World Heritage Site The city has been previously been awarded recognition by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, and as a UNESCO city of music. When the UNESCO world city status had been awarded in 2004 it played a major part in being a catalyst for Liverpool’s regeneration. This has subsequently been supported by the magnificent European Capital of Culture year in 2008, and the amazing events that have since been held in the city. It is a disappointment that in 2021 Liverpool lost is UNESCO status as a world heritage site, and it is hoped that the development of a new UNESCO or Historical strategy can be considered
UNESCO City of Music The status from UNESCO as a world city of music is still in place for Liverpool and it is now the ambition to see how this accolade can be embellished. What is clear is that the status includes key tourist attractions and areas such as Matthew street, and although not listed sites, these locations should be on the Head of Heritage Preservation and Development radar to be developed as part of the city’s key heritage content.
Buildings of Local Historic Interest Liverpool is blessed with over 2500 buildings, monuments and sites that are listed. However, throughout the city, there are other such sites that are of historical significance but to date have not been formerly recognised and given a listed status or have been overlooked as being sites of importance. NOVEMBERL 2021
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It will be the Head of Heritage Preservation and Development role to appoint staff, surveyors, or architects to review each ward area of the city to identify where overlooked cultural gems may be and to then follow up on their preservation. Often this will be via local knowledge or by defining recognising what is important to the local community. It will be the role of the Head of Heritage Preservation and Development the then follow up on buildings that have the potential to achieve partial or full listing, and then to access funding for their development.
Advisory Group The post is not intended to be the oracle of all heritage knowledge or technical expertise, so a group of advisors will be developed to steer the strategies of heritage preservation and development for the city and to monitor the success of any heritage campaigns to preserve and develop the city’s historical collateral. To support this initiative, it will also be good practice to have an ongoing evaluation of projects to show the impact the role of the Head of Heritage Preservation and Development is having on the city’s historical content.
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR THE PAST...
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Contact Alan Smith - Head of Heritage, Preservation and Development alan.smith@liverpool.gov.uk 0151 233 0559 0792 1284 809
All images provided within this document have been reproduced with the kind permission of the photographers including Stratus Imagery and Helen Croft). All information contained within this document was correct at the time of production (November 2021).
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NOVEMBER 2021 Author: Alan Smith