Welcome to the latest edition of the HELM newsletter. We are delighted to present this quarterly newsletter for your interest.

Your next update will be October 2009.

Scrutiny Committees

In June, English Heritage published Making Most of Your Local Heritage: A guide for Overview and Scrutiny Committees. The guidance highlights the significant contribution that these committees can make to the protection, management and promotion of their local historic environment.

The guidance will be of particular interest to Heritage Champions who are members of Scrutiny Committees, but those who aren’t should bring it to the attention of local committee members.

Heritage Link

Heritage Link is offering all Heritage Champions the opportunity to receive Update – the Heritage Sector’s most popular e-newsletter.

Update is a brilliant source of up-to-date news for all those involved in and around the sector. Heritage Link Update has a readership of 11,000 in the UK and beyond.

Each edition features the latest news, events and job vacancies. It presents news and views across the sector but also gathers evidence and opinion from its wide readership. To receive your free copy fortnightly contact: Kate Jones: or by telephone on .

The new Planning Policy Statement (PPS) for the historic environment has been published in draft form this month, along with a web-based 'living draft' Historic Environment Planning Practice Guide.  CLG is running a , which will be replacing the current PPGs 15 and 16, with the intention of publishing the final version in early 2010.

Recent publications include:

Character and identity: Townscape and heritage appraisals in housing market renewal areas

This report, co-published by CABE and English Heritage, reflects the desire of both agencies to ensure a good process for addressing character and identity. It focuses specifically on the experience of planning for regeneration in housing market renewal (HMR) areas and has been produced in partnership with Elevate East Lancashire.

Download Character and identity: Townscape and heritage appraisals in housing market renewal areas.

Making the Most of Your Local Heritage: A Guide for Overview and Scrutiny Committees

This guidance is designed to help Overview and Scrutiny Committees plan and carry out constructive reviews of heritage and the management of the historic environment in their area.

Download Making the Most of Your Local Heritage: A Guide for Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

Heritage at Risk: Conservation Areas

This year English Heritage has for the first time included endangered conservation areas in its register of Heritage at Risk – the national database of buildings, monuments and landscapes that need to be protected, not only for the future but for the huge contribution they can make to the communities of today.

Download Heritage at Risk: Conservation Areas.

Thatching Decision Tree and Guidance Note

The harvests of 2007 and 2008 were poor in many parts of the country. This has considerably reduced the amount of thatching straw on the open market. Local authorities are encountering a growing volume of request for the use of other materials which may arise from these shortages.

Download Thatching Decision Tree and Guidance Note.

Implementing the Heritage Protection Reforms: a Report on Local Authority and English Heritage Staff Resources

The first report of a two-stage project looking at staff resources for archaeology and building conservation within local authorities and English Heritage, particularly within the planning process, prepared by English Heritage, the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers and the Institute of Historic Building Conservation.

Download Implementing the Heritage Protection Reforms: a Report on Local Authority and English Heritage Staff Resources.

HELM training 2009

This year’s programme of HELM training events continues to be very successful with every event delivered at full capacity. Since April we have trained more than 300 colleagues over 8 training events. We are now taking bookings for all the training events planned for the next 3 months. More information on these can be found by downloading the promotional leaflet from the training pages on the HELM website. We advise you reserve your place as soon as you are able to avoid disappointment: e-mail .

• 10th Sept. Stopping the Rot.
• 15th Sept. Stopping the Rot. Chichester
• 24th Sept. Stopping the Rot. Durham
• 1st Oct. A Future for Historic School Buildings. Reading
• 15th Oct. Finding a Future for Traditional Farm Buildings: Policy & Practice in Conversion. Essex

Historic Environment Traineeship (HET) Scheme

The HET Scheme was launched in October 2008 and we are currently in the middle of recruitment for the next intake of Trainee Historic Environment Managers due to start with us in October this year. The HET Scheme links to English Heritage’s strategy, to Heritage Protection Reform and contributes to our Training & Capacity Building activities complementing existing initiatives such as HELM, EPPIC and HEEP. 

It is designed to provide the historic environment sector with the expert skills it will require in the future. The range of knowledge and skills being gained by the Trainees will make them highly employable Historic Environment Managers and Practitioners at the end of the Scheme, boosting the ranks of Local Authorities, other agencies and organisations within the sector.

Enquiries regarding the HET Scheme should be directed to the Project Manager, Caroline Crewe-Read, at or . Further information about the HET Scheme is available at on the English Heritage website at www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.20479.

HELM continues to collect case studies from throughout England to demonstrate the benefits of good decision-making in the historic environment. These are local stories which put theory into practice and show real results with positive benefits. Case studies can inspire innovative solutions, disseminate ideas and keep people informed of initiatives in their area.

Please send us your case studies! Case studies are showcased on the HELM website as examples of good practice and can be searched by particular topic and administrative area. They may be used to illustrate new guidance and presentations. To find out more and receive a case studies form, visit the HELM website case studies section or .

Miracle Court, Bakewell

Miracle Court is a small affordable housing scheme on the edge of the historic core of Bakewell, Derbyshire and close to the New Street scheme (see Bakewell, New Street case study). The scheme represents an excellent example of the use of vernacular material, good design and attention to detail.

Miracle Court, Bakewell HELM Case Study

Mill Close, Orford

Mill Close is a small development of affordable housing in a prominent edge of town location that affects the setting of an historic settlement and an important scheduled ancient monument.

Mill Close, Orford HELM Case Study

Contact details

If you have any queries relating to this newsletter please email or phone Timothy Brooks on . If you wish to unsubscribe, please use the unsubscribe link.