Responsibility of local authorities in the preservation and rehabilitation of ancient buildings and historical or artistic sites
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 12 May 1969 (1st Sitting) (see Doc. 2557, report of the Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities). Text adopted by the Assembly on 12 May 1969 (1st Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Having noted the report on the responsibilities of local authorities in the preservation and rehabilitation of ancient buildings and historical or artistic sites ;
2. Conscious, in the light of recent developments in preservation policy and in particular the five symposia organised by the CCC, of the true function and place of such a policy in the European society ;
3. Recalling in this connection the statement in the report by its Cultural and Scientific Committee (
Doc. 1570) that "in all countries the execution of plans is in the last resort a matter for local authorities" ;
4. Recalling also its own
Resolution 249 adopted in 1963 on the action of local authorities in the preservation and development of ancient buildings and historic or artistic sites, which insisted on the "prime importance of the part to be played by municipalities and local authorities" in this sphere ;
5. Recalling finally
Resolution 44 (1964) of the European Conference of Local Authorities stressing that therein lay "an important aspect of the general problem of regional planning, the essence of which is the creation of an environment worthy of the human beings who inhabit it" ;
6. Paying tribute to the efforts made over the past years by the members of the CCC, the members of the European Conference of Local Authorities and numerous experts to define the general framework for a policy on this matter ;
7. Having noted with great satisfaction the impending Ministerial Conference convened by the Belgian Government to discuss, at the highest European level, the problems of preserving historic or artistic sites ;
8. Wishing, nevertheless, to emphasise at this time two aspects of the problem of preservation with a particularly important bearing on the policy to be adopted by member countries : its close interdependence with local and regional planning policy, and the prime role falling to local and regional communities in the implementation of any policy for the preservation and development of ancient buildings and historical or artistic sites,
9. Resolves to instruct its representatives invited as observers to the Conference of Ministers most directly responsible for the preservation and rehabilitation of groups and areas of buildings of historical or artistic interest to put forward the Assembly's views and to emphasise in particular :
a the inseparability of any policy for preservation and rehabilitation from urban and regional planning policy ;
b the prime role that municipal and regional authorities, should play in implementing preservation policy set out by governments, as indeed in any policy of local and regional planning ;
c the advisability of express recognition by government departments of this role that local authorities, and particularly regional agencies, should play ;
d the advisability, also, of redefining the role of the state in this field, which should be that of originating where private individuals or regional or municipal authorities fail to do so, possibly of supporting these authorities with grants or with technical advice, and of being the supreme arbiter where there is a conflict of interests ;
e the desire of the Consultative Assembly to be kept informed of the Conference's decisions, so that it can consider suitable means of carrying out its campaign for the preservation and rehabilitation of groups and areas of buildings of historical or artistic interest.
