Preview of IHBC’s Brighton Day School: ‘Evolution’ theme insights, from Cliff Hague (planning) and Jess Steele (Hastings)

IHBC’s 2020 Brighton School conference, ‘OLD TOWNS : NEW FUTURES’ sponsored by HESPR member Heritage Collective, explores the challenging topic of our towns and urban centres, and NewsBlog readers are offered a special preview of the Day School’s ‘Evolution’ theme, as Cliff Hague will explore international planning perspectives and Jess Steele will take Hastings, and its Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) as a case study in renewal and community engagement.

After the morning opens with first keynote Carole Souter, OBE, she will be followed by internationally renouned planner Cliff Hague, Past President of the RTPI, and Emeritus Professor at Heriot-Watt University, as he explores urban centres and their environs, past, present and future, from an international planning perspective. As Chair of Edinburgh’s civic trust, The Cockburn Association, Cliff will be well placed to add a local take to his global narrative.

Cliff’s broad-ranging exploration of urban evolution will be followed by a forensic and personally informed case study of renewal from the community’s perspective. Jess Steele, founder and director of Jericho Road Solutions and a founder trustee of Heart of Hastings Community Land Trust will examine ‘Communities in urban revival and regeneration: A case study from Hastings and its Heritage Action Zone.’

This first session will conclude with one of the most important parts of the IHBC’s modern Day Schools, the ‘IHBC Spotlight’. Our Spotlight is a special initiative form the IHBC, often supported by our networks, that adds a new dimension to the CPD learning and resources on offer to Day School delegates. IHBC Spotlights remind delegates that – regardless of their personal professional affiliations – the IHBC leads as a player in conservation, as a well as serving as a platform for its learning.

As ever, IHBC School Spotlights are designed to maximise CPD impact on the day, and content may vary at any stage.

For this session the ‘Spotlight’ will likely offer the launch of a new IHBC ToolBox publication, a Guidance Note provisionally titled ‘Heritage considerations and opportunities Neighbourhood Planning’.

IHBC’s Brighton 2020 writes:

Billions of pounds are being invested today to support towns – old and new – as well as their surrounding regions. Most of that money comes from the UK’s cultural, business and community purses, but often is tied to separate, even contradictory outcomes.

At the same time core heritage funds are more constrained than ever, and the pressures on our making locally valued places sustainable can put those places most at risk.

What can be done by those who care, shape and advise on such places to make our towns succeed in the future?

The IHBC’s 2020 Brighton School and conference takes a timely and forensic look at how the planning, heritage and related sectors can make the most of the opportunities on offer, help players learn from colleagues and others, and broaden understanding of the drivers, barriers and responses.

This unique learning opportunity from the IHBC – in Brighton, from 18-20 June 2020 – will ensure that practitioners can uncover new solutions to some surprisingly historic challenges.

For IHBC’s Brighton 2020 School see Brighton2020.ihbc.org.uk where you can sign up for the IHBC’s 2020 School alerts, follow us @IHBCTweet and see #IHBCBrighton2020 for updates.

For more background on the 2020 School‘s principal sponsor, Heritage Collective, a member of the IHBC’s quality assured HESPR Community, see the NewsBlog and HESPR and Heritage Collective’s HESPR entry

See more on the IHBC’s Annual Schools

See the 2019 Nottingham School Spotlights on new ToolBox Guidance Notes:

See more Research Notes and more Guidance Notes in the IHBC’s ToolBox

For more background to 2020 School sponsorship a see the NewsBlog

See options and download the SPONSORSHIP BROCHURE