Fears for city heritage amid ‘unacceptable’ conservation provision
Fears have emerged for the future of Birmingham’s historic buildings as the council came under fire for “unacceptable” conservation provision.
The city’s rich heritage spans centuries and is home to many historical assets, some of which are ‘at risk’ of falling into disrepair.
But Lee Marsham, chair of the council’s planning committee, acknowledged during a recent meeting that the authority had been “short in that area” when it came to its conservation officers.
He told councillors that the low number of officers was due to people taking sick leave and departing the Labour-run council.
Philip Davis was one of the councillors who expressed frustration over the situation and described the council’s current level of provision for conservation as “unacceptable”.
“Having worked closely with those officers over the years, I’ve simply seen an impossible workload imposed upon them and an inability for the council to really engage with the serious conservation deficit we face in this city,” he said.
“It is greatly concerning that we’re in this position.”
Turning attention to wider staffing levels across the council, the Labour councillor said: “We’re in crisis actually I think as a council and on our knees in various areas because of the service conditions that have been imposed on us by cuts by the previous government.”
Conservative councillor Gareth Moore hit back: “Perhaps if they [Birmingham Labour] didn’t overspend on Oracle there’d be more money for conservation officers, based on Coun Davis’ comments.”
“It’s disappointing that we don’t have sufficient resource to support our conservation team,” he continued. “As a city, we have a huge number of heritage and historical assets which are at risk.
“We need to protect those as best we can and that service needs to properly resourced.”
Coun Martin Brooks added that the number of conservation officers was “inadequate”.
“We need to be, as a city, far more on the ball in terms of conservation issues,” he argued. “We’ve got some really serious problems in terms of […] some real landmark buildings within the city centre.”
Planning chair Coun Marsham told the meeting that the council had new conservation support from a local firm, initially for three months with an option to extend, and would be providing a new permanent position.
He also said he would be involved if councillors wanted to bring forward a motion covering the need to reinforce the planning team.
Several issues contributed to the council’s recent financial turmoil, including the equal pay debacle, inadequate budget setting, poor service management, demand led pressures and the disastrous implementation of a new IT system.
Labour politicians have also pointed to the impact of funding cuts over the past decade and a half.
