LOWDOWN ON LOCAL LISTS

I TRUST that you will publish this letter for clarification to the many local people interested in the compiling of a Local List for Rossendale.

As this has been in the pipeline for many years, the grant of £49,400 to CAST (‘£50,000 project to help protect Valley’s many heritage assets’, July 21) has come quite a surprise.

Making lists of locally significant features was introduced by the government in the 1990s, to complement the main, statutory Lists of Nationally important buildings.

Local Lists have always had to be drawn up with input from the local community.

In 1992 Rossendale’s local history and residents’ groups formed a body called Rossendale Heritage Network specially for the purpose of compiling a Local List, which was given to Rossendale Borough Council as a working document. This was one of the first in the country, and in fact many local authorities have never had one at all. In 2006, the list was revised and upgraded, again by a working party drawn from the community and interested individuals, and this version was presented and accepted as part of the council’s Core Strategy in 2011. All this was done on a completely voluntary basis.

The government’s advice in the National Planning Policy Framework put Local Lists on a more formal basis, and in discussion with Rossendale Borough Council, it was planned to do yet another update, but the council, in whose hands the final decision to validate the document