Damien Egan, the Mayor of Lewisham, and 13 national and local amenity societies are urging the government to give councils greater powers to protect local heritage buildings.
image: LocalGov website
Damien Egan writes in LocalGov:
From Victorian public houses to traditional shop fronts to art deco buildings, local authorities are home to a diverse mix of heritage assets that make up a central part of communities’ identities.
Lewisham alone is home to over 500 locally listed buildings of unique social, historical and architectural interest dating back as far as the seventeenth century…..
However, there have been a number of cases in Lewisham where we have lost locally significant buildings to developers due to a loophole in national planning legislation that limits local authorities’ ability to protect them. This is a challenge faced by councils across the country.
Only buildings that are nationally listed by Historic England are protected from permitted development rights for demolition, as are buildings within a conservation area. This means that if a developer owns a locally listed building or asset of community value and wants to demolish it, they do not require full planning permission from the local authority to do so.
