Will the Minister make a statement on measures taken to protect the post-war built environment in Wales?
The approach Cadw has adopted for post-war listing is to identify key examples for each of a range of building types, and to treat these examples as defining a standard against which to judge proposals for new listings. Several key examples were identified during the comprehensive Wales-wide resurvey of listed buildings completed in 2005, others as a result of ad hoc spot listing requests. In all, some 79 post-war buildings are now protected by listing. These represent a broad range of building types including private housing, places of worship, school and college buildings, commercial and industrial buildings and some public and civic buildings.
In order to build on the framework put in place through the resurvey and spot-listing, last year Cadw commissioned advice to inform our future approach to post-war listing. A report has been prepared and will be published on Cadw’s website within the next few weeks. This report sets out a general context for the evaluation of post-war buildings, and gives detailed advice on public and private housing and buildings commissioned by national and local government including civic buildings, schools and colleges – thematic areas identified as being of particular priority. Cadw will use this report to embark on a small-scale programme of listing post-war buildings, whilst continuing to be responsive to spot-listing requests for buildings of all types and periods.
Cadw also works closely with the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales in respect of post-war built heritage. RCAHMW carries out a programme of recording for a small number of key buildings, and is also developing a data-base of post-war places of worship which will inform future listing activity in that thematic area.