What progress has been made towards the creation of heritage partnership agreements as set out in the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016?
Heritage partnership agreements will bring owners, consenting authorities and other interested parties together to create long-term management plans for historic assets. Since they will be able to include scheduled monument and/or listed building consents for agreed programmes of works, these voluntary agreements will eliminate the need for repeated applications for individual consents and save time and resources for all involved.
These agreements are expected to last for several years, so it is important to put in place a coherent and well-considered body of supporting regulations and guidance that will, from the outset, meet the diverse needs of interested parties and suit the particular circumstances in Wales. Cadw shared its early proposals with historic environment sector partners including the National Trust, Glandŵr Cymru and local planning authorities. Their constructive responses have been invaluable in the complex process of developing a robust structure for heritage partnership agreements in Wales.
We aim to release draft documents for public consultation in the latter part of 2019 and bring heritage partnership agreements into force in 2020.