Agenda item

The Committee will undertake an enquiry into the Councils role in celebrating the areas heritage as part of the Corporate Plan theme of “A Growing and Inclusive Economy”. Within that theme the Corporate Plan identifies the importance of promoting Tendring’s tourism, culture and heritage offers.

To assist the Committee with its enquiry, the Portfolio Holder for Sport and Leisure has produced a report which sets out details of budgets over the last five years, and performance and output indicators detailed in the annex. In addition, the report set out information on the Heritage and Conservation Area Planning Guidance and its application for traditional farm buildings, conservation areas and listed buildings.

Further to the decision of Council on 13 July 2021 (Minute 53 refers), the Committee undertook an enquiry into “Celebrating the Area’s Heritage” – what was being done, how much money the Council was investing in this and what were the outcomes of that investment.

The Committee heard how Tendring had a rich history celebrated across Essex by residents and visitors alike. Its coastal location had provided it with a unique and varied heritage, from prehistoric artefacts that included the 420,000 year old ‘Clacton Spear’ fashioned before modern humans walked the earth, to medieval buildings and Victorian villas, with many nationally significant sites. The seaside resorts in Tendring made tourism a major component of its economy and gave the coastline its distinctive character and charm. There were 52 areas of ancient woodland within Tendring with a particularly important cluster along the edge of the Stour Estuary in the north east corner of the District. And at Harwich, The Mayflower heritage was still visible today, as were the 19^th century brick lighthouses, and the Leading Lights. 

The Council’s Heritage Strategy was adopted by decision of the Leader on 24 April 2020.

The report informed Members that the draft Heritage Strategy was published for a seven week period of consultation and ran from November 2019 to January 2020. Statutory bodies, national and local amenity societies, including town and parish councils were consulted. Communication included posters, social media, surveys and a drop-in exhibition on the afternoon and evening of the 3rd December 2019 at the Council offices in Weeley. It was attended by members of Tendring’s local history groups, residents and professionals. The draft Heritage Strategy for Tendring was considered by the Local Plan and Planning Policy Committee on 29th October 2019.

Members heard how the Heritage Strategy aimed to promote the protection and celebration of the area’s rich history, predominantly contained within its historic environment, and enhance the positive contribution it made to the lives of those people that lived in and visited the District. This was reflected in the vision on which the Strategy had been developed:-

‘The unique heritage of our district provides a rich, often hidden landscape that informs what it is to live here in the 21st century. This strategy identifies those historic features and aims to celebrate and enhance the heritage of Tendring’.

Members also heard how the strategy was organised into two parts:

Part One: “The Baseline explores the historic development of Tendring, and identifies existing heritage assets, sites and resources. It covers the physical heritage of Tendring in the form of the historic environment, and includes archaeology, buildings, settlements, landscapes, archives and artefacts. It also creates a comprehensive list of the people who are involved in looking after the historic environment today”.

Part Two: “Assessment and Strategy, draws on the findings of Part One to identify key issues and opportunities within Tendring. It addresses key issues facing Tendring’s heritage, and propose actions to preserve and protect it for the future”.

The report explained how the Heritage Strategy had six objectives: Conservation, Collaboration, Knowledge, Character, Interpretation and Accessibility. Some actions span one or more of objectives. Each action was assigned a priority of High, Medium, Low and Ongoing. There was no time period specified for the Heritage Strategy and therefore actions had been progressed based on priority. While the Council had been able to progress a significant number of the high priority actions, the Council had not had the resources to progress most of the lower priority actions to date. 

Conservation, Collaboration & Interpretation

Progress on high priority actions has been significant. (9 out of 10 in progress)

The Committee was informed that Councillor Bray was appointed Heritage Champion in July 2018 to promote and raise awareness of Heritage Assets, protection and importance. Officers within the Planning Policy and Assets team monitored Heritage and championed the issue internally.

It was reported to Members that the Conservation Area Appraisals (CAA) and Management Plans for five out of the District’s 20 areas had been considered by the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee and agreed by Cabinet to go out for public consultation. The remaining 15 were to be presented to the Committee and Cabinet within 12 months, and that work was on schedule. The Council had decided to make steady progress with its Conservation Area Appraisals so that each could be completed effectively with the resources available. The final outcome of this work would be a full set of Conservation Area Appraisals and Management Plans which would be a material consideration in the determination of planning applications, the basis for potential pro-active work (included public realm works and, where appropriate, the making of Article 4 Directions) and formal changes to the boundaries of certain Conservation Areas.  

The Committee heard that alongside the CAA’s, the Committee and Cabinet were also presented with a report on the formulation of a non-designated local heritage list and the criteria to be met for a local building to be included on such a list. The criteria would be published for public consultation and once decided, further public consultation would be held to invite nominations of local buildings to be submitted for consideration and potential inclusion on the list. Through the Neighbourhood Planning process, town and parish councils (included Alresford, Ardleigh, Elmstead and Brightlingsea to date) had already been identified locally important but non-designated buildings for inclusion on a list. Inclusion of buildings on a local list did not give them the full protection of a statutory listing, but it would be a material consideration in the determination of planning applications that affected those buildings, and their settings.

It was reported to the Committee that the High, Medium and Low Priority Actions regarding planning powers, design guides, Conservation booklets and signage audits were dependent on, and would complete after the adoption of the CAA and Management Plans and following consultation. However, Essex Place Services was already engaged to provide information, advice and guidance in the district as well as comment on planning applications, and the Planning Team already give regard to heritage matters through the planning process.

Knowledge, Character & Accessibility

High and Medium priority progress has been significant (4 out of 5 in progress)

The report informed the Committee that the work had begun in the Economic Growth and Leisure team to source funding for the Heritage Lights on Clacton Seafront and the Leading Lights in Dovercourt, to safeguard and protect our assets, following on from the cost exercises undertaken in 2020, although the Council could not guarantee bids would be successful, so progress would depend on external investment.

The Members heard how assets continued to investigate options for other listed properties in the Council portfolio and currently had restoration works underway on the Treadwell Crane. Emergency repairs to Martello Tower E were complete and Tower D had been identified for further action. Promotion of events and heritage was integral to Tourism and Events delivery plans, and the Jaywick Neighbourhood Team Manager supported local groups to engage with the Jaywick Martello Tower and host activities there and in the surrounding area.

Tourism and Assets teams worked proactively to support destinations with advice to improve site accessibility and consider alternatives such as VR, virtual access and audio guides, as well as signposting to Historic England for further support.

Tendring Cultural Education Partnership

The report informed the Committee how the progress had been made on actions with young people and schools. Training and development, collaboration with schools, aspirations of young people, encouraged school trips and the establishment of a Cultural Partnership had been progressed by the Tendring Cultural Education Partnership (TCEP) working with the Partnerships team. Covid had stretched school resources and a light touch had been required, however there had been positive engagements with young people, within and outside of school through the TCEP support of Theatre Timoin’s ‘FLOOD’, included winning a Galloper Wind Farm grant; supported the Theatre of Lemmings with a project to deliver ‘George the Bookworm’ to six Tendring primary schools in Summer 2022,  Snapping the Stilletto’s Art Award, and, worked with Clacton150, the delivery of the Coat of Arms design competition for which 42 schools were invited to take part, 11 participated and 200 entries were received from children.

Events

The Committee heard how the heritage strategy was agreed at the same time as the first Covid lockdown. As such, the scope of the events which had been possible to run to date was narrower than hoped when the strategy was developed. Despite Covid, the Council had continued to promote active engagement of audiences in heritage that also supported take up of healthy lifestyles. Projects in the last year included Octopus Ahoy! (22,776,678 steps recorded), Street Tag, the Heritage Trail that consisted of 19 information boards, four with augmented reality, two audio posts and one listening bench. The Listening bench had been played 2772 times, the railway audio post played 375 times and the Jaywick audio post play 604 times.

The Committee also heard how Street Tag was a community and schools (separate leader boards) based virtual tag activity with multiple trails, that included a bespoke Monument Trail, which used augmented reality to show key historic buildings. Teams had been competing for prizes. During Phase 1 from 16 July to 30 September 11 schools and 51 community teams logged a total of 26,187 miles, and 17,789,805 steps across walking, running and cycling. Street Tag was currently in its second phase and still very popular for schools and the community.

The Members were informed how the Council had not yet had the capacity to develop the unified narrative or ‘brand’ for all local historic properties and heritage assets, that included hidden heritage and healthy heritage as they require significant engagement with external partners which was resource intensive. The Council had the potential with the developments to the Love Tendring App to promote Tendring heritage within the district and to a wider regional and national audience. 

Local projects

The report informed Members that the Heritage Lights in Clacton: having completed a cost exercise on the refurbishment of the lights the Council was pursuing external funding, the success of which would determine whether it was possible to take the project forward. Walton Maritime Museum had vacated their Council premises and were looking for premises closer to the town centre to increase footfall. Brightlingsea Lido had been transferred to Brightlingsea Town Council, who had given the lido to a Charitable Trust. The Trust had undertaken significant works, that included following the 2020 storm flooding damage and continued to work with the Town Council to develop proposals and initiatives for the site.

Outcomes

·         “Five conservation area appraisals are near completion, with 15 expected to complete over the next 12 months.

·         A local non-designated heritage list is being prepared and expected in place by the end of 2022.

·         Martello Tower E has had emergency repairs completed, a VLOG (link) was posted of progress. The two videos have received over 300 views combined.

·         Treadwell Crane conservation is underway following a successful grant from Historic England.

·         The Tendring Cultural Education Partnership is supporting schools and young people to access arts and heritage at home, school and in their local areas.

·         Octopus Ahoy! ran for 10 weeks over Summer 2021 featuring 30 Octopuses, sponsored by local business and schools.10,003 participants downloaded the app and logged 103,00 ‘finds’ and 22,776,678 steps across the event.

·         The Heritage Trail was installed in July 2021 between Jaywick and Holland-on-Sea, celebrating the 150^th anniversary of Clacton. There are 19 information boards featuring historic images and facts, included four boards with augmented reality, two listening posts and a listening bench. The train station listening post has been played 375 times, the Jaywick audio post 604 times and the Listening Bench played 2772 times.

·         The Street Tag virtual activity launched on the 16 July. Participants can walk, run or cycle to virtual tag locations and gain points. This featured a bespoke Monument Trail that when beacons were reached, uses augmented reality to show historic images of key locations. During phase one, 703 participants across 11 schools and 51 community teams logged 26,187 miles, and 17,789,805 steps. Phase 2 is underway.

·         Heritage Open Days and International Day of Monuments programmes are planned for 2022.

·         Brightlingsea Lido has been transferred to the community with a supported five year management plan.

Jaywick Managed Workspace will featuring hoardings created by local creative teams to showcase the area’s history”.

The Committee Members asked a series of questions on the Heritage Strategy and the conservation policies and were provided with responses to those questions. These are set as an appendix to these Minutes.

After a discussion, the Committee thanked the Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Tourism and the Officers for the attendance and NOTED the contents of the report.