Total cost associated with the listing of property on the various Registers for Buildings and Sites of Importance

1240/5(7789)

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT BY THE CONNÉTABLE OF ST. JOHN

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 10th SEPTEMBER 2013

Question

Would the Minister give the total cost associated with the listing of property on the Register for Buildings and Sites of Architectural, Archaeological and Historical Importance in Jersey across all Parishes (for example Boundary Stones, Culverts, Monuments, war memorials, cemeteries, Don de Gruchy land and Parish properties) as it would appear that this requires considerable manpower resources to progress?

Answer

Under the terms of the Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe (the Granada Convention), the provisions of which were extended to Jersey in 1988, there is an obligation to maintain an inventory of the Island's architectural heritage in order that it might be statutorily protected.

This is enabled by the Planning and Building (Jersey) Law 2002 which states that the Minister shall include on a List those buildings and places of special architectural, historical and archaeological interest. On this basis, the addition of structures of unique historical interest to this List is an entirely appropriate use of the Department of the Environment's resources in fulfilling the Island's obligation and satisfying the Minister's responsibilities under law.

A review of the entire historic environment protection regime was commenced under the former Minister's administration. This was to involve a comprehensive resurvey and review of the designation of all of the Island's existing and potential heritage assets.

Phase 1 of the historic environment resurvey involved a resurvey of all existing heritage assets involving some 3,500 buildings which was completed between 2010 and 2012. Phase 2 of the resurvey, which focussed on the surveying of potential heritage assets that had not been previously assessed, was undertaken during 2012. It has been extended, in 2013, to include a review of the Island's historic post boxes, following proposals by Jersey Post to remove a significant proportion of these roadside features.

The resurvey work has been undertaken over four financial years, with Phase 1 costing approximately £180,000 and Phase 2 costing approximately £50,000. These costs have been met from within existing Department of the Environment resources that would otherwise be spent on grant assistance and/or consultant support for activities across the Policy, Projects and Historic Environment portfolio.

The identification, review and assessment of heritage assets is an integral and key element of a service level agreement between the Department of the Environment and the Jersey Heritage Trust. The value of the service level agreement, for 2013, which is published in full on the websites of both the States of Jersey and Jersey Heritage, is £69,000. Provision for this amount is budgeted for from within the Department of the Environment budget.

In addition to the specific costs involved in the identification, survey and assessment of heritage assets, the Department of the Environment is required, by law, to follow a prescribed process for the designation of heritage assets. This requires administration and management: the department has procured some temporary support in 2012 to assist with this work at a cost of approximately £27,000.

Management time spent on this project is dependent upon the level of representation made in respect of proposals to List buildings and places as this will necessarily involve the consideration of representations. The costs of this are, therefore, variable, but are met from within existing resources. An estimate of the cost of management time for the Historic Environment Review currently would be approximately £30,000 per annum.