Influential thinktank calls for 'urban right to roam'

The development of an urban right to roam could help open up heritage infrastructure for creative reuse, a report from think tank Demos has suggested.

Demos called on agencies, authorities and communities responsible for such infrastructure to become much more aware of its value as a community asset.

It said: “Heritage infrastructure networks have the potential to provide multifunctional working landscapes that increase the physical and emotional resilience of places. However, currently many assets are generally not viewed or valued in this way. Instead they are are often seen, at worst, as liabilities and, at best, as often cumbersome artefacts from the past, best preserved in the aspic of rules and regulations.”

The report said highways departments and public sector managers tended to favour capital-intensive, technologically based approaches to softer community approaches. The fact that heritage infrastructure networks often cross local and regional administrative boundaries complicates matters further.

Demos suggested that spatial planning could be strengthened, so that key planning policies recognise the full value and functions that heritage infrastructure could provide.

Local authorities should also consider developing resilience of place measures for existing and new developments, it added.

An urban right to roam guaranteeing public access could be achieved through partnership working between local authorities and others responsible for green infrastructure.

A more open culture towards the reuse and repurposing of urban assets could also be achieved by experimenting with temporary uses. Local authorities should identify social development zones within their areas where development control, change of use permissions and planning regulations are relaxed to help encourage temporary use.

Demos added that agencies responsible for heritage infrastructure networks should undertake audits of amenities, organisations, destinations and communities close by, and consider how any interventions could be co-developed.

Local authorities should also task, train and support officers to work with communities to build a vision for place, with heritage infrastructure acting as a stimulus for this.