Description: Following consultation with the community, Gateshead council have drawn up a list of parks, gardens, buildings, monuments and areas that are considered to be locally important. This list is backed by the community management plan.

Issue:

It had been 20 years since the statutory list for Gateshead had been revised. Ensuring that the local community was properly engaged and involved in the process was the key to having a true representation of what the community deemed important.

Although buildings on the local list do not have the same legal protection as fully-listed buildings, their recognition is a factor that can be considered when planning or funding decisions are made in the future. Therefore, a development plan policy that sets out the (criteria based) approach to be adopted when faced with planning applications affecting those entries on the list was needed. This adds an important dimension to those entries on the HER, providing a record of what is actually valued by the people who live and work in their vicinity, making them more than just factual records of sites. The list also considers part L of building regulations.

Strategy:

In 2003 Gateshead council circulated a leaflet entitled Hidden Treasures and invited people to nominate a building or park in their area that they felt to be of special interest. They received a tremendous response and received some 540 nominations.

A Panel of independent advisers consisting of a landscape historian, local historian, and a conservation architect considered the nominations. Their recommendations formed a draft local list of 261 sites including buildings, parks and gardens.

Advice letters were prepared for owners and occupiers to inform them and explain what inclusion on the List meant.

Before the council approved the revised local list, the views of owners, occupiers and amenity bodies, professional organisations and local history societies were sought.

Outcome: The outcome is a list that outlines the buildings and areas that are important to the community of Gateshead. This brings the value of heritage to a more intimate level and will be a material consideration in future development.