23 May 2006
05 May 2006
NEWS RELEASE
New heritage advisory group for Minister
The Minister for Planning and Environment, Senator Freddie Cohen is to set up a new heritage advisory group to advise him about protecting the Island ’s best historic buildings. The new group will draw upon the wide pool of knowledge about Jersey ’s historic environment that exists in the Island and will help him make better, more informed decisions about the registration of historic buildings. The group will operate under a strict code of conduct and terms of reference.
The new group – the Ministerial Registration and Listing Advisory Group – will offer advice to the Planning Minister about which buildings and places in the Island deserve special protection under the planning law and Island Plan policy. This is an important role and, to ensure that the Minister has the best information available to him, requires a group of people with great expertise and knowledge about many different aspects of the Island’s history, culture and architecture.
The new group will replace the Jersey Heritage Advisory Panel – which was set up by the Environment and Public Services Committee in 2003 with a broader remit and a tighter membership – and will just focus on the provision of advice about the Register of Historic Buildings but will draw on a much wider range of local expertise.
‘Having spent many years involved with Jersey Heritage Trust as Vice Chairman, I am very conscious of the significant pool of heritage knowledge in the Island and I want to be able to take advantage of this and to extend the membership of the Group’ said Senator Cohen ‘When I am making decisions about changes to the Historic Buildings Register I want to make sure that I am doing so on the best information available. I already receive excellent advice from the Jersey Heritage Trust, who maintain the register on my behalf, but I want to embrace the huge wealth of knowledge that exists in the wider community and secure independent advice from this new group.’
Individuals with relevant specialist knowledge who are members of local heritage groups will be invited to join the new group to extend the depth and breadth of knowledge that the Minister can draw on. All the current members of the Jersey Heritage Advisory Panel, who have contributed to this work and who have provided sterling service on a voluntary basis since 2003, will be asked to continue to maintain their role.
Jon Carter, Director of Jersey Heritage Trust, will manage the meetings of the new group – as part of the service level agreement with P&E – and Francis Corbet, President of the Societe Jersiaise, has been invited by the Minister to act as President of the Ministerial Registration and Listing Advisory Group. The first meeting of the new group is scheduled to take place on 12 June 2006.
The focus of the new Group will be to advise the Minister - through the service level agreement that he has with Jersey Heritage Trust to maintain the Historic Buildings Register – about the designation of the best of the Island’s heritage as Sites of Special Interest and about other changes to the Historic Building Register as new buildings and places of historic, architectural, archaeological or cultural interest are added to or removed from it. The Group will also offer advice to the Minister about appeals against registration. The Group’s role is thus entirely advisory and decision-making will remain with the Minister for Planning and Environment.
Contacts
Senator Freddie Cohen m. 07797 714550
Minister for Planning and Environment
Kevin Pilley t. 448441
Planning and Environment Department
gov.je