The Victorian Society expresses its grave concern over reports that Sheffield City Council intends to cut up to 40 jobs within its planning department, stressing that the repercussions of these cuts could result in the loss of many of the city’s historic buildings.
Victorian Postcard of Crimean Monument, Moorhead, showing horse drawn tram.
Roles vital to the protection of Sheffield’s heritage that could be under threat include those in conservation and urban design, as well as accessibility specialists and dangerous structures team.
Christopher Costelloe, Director of the The Victorian Society, states, ‘These proposed cuts are deeply concerning. The proposed evisceration of Sheffield’s planning department is part of a wider nationwide problem. If our finite historic buildings are left unprotected through cuts to the departments put in place to defend them, Sheffield risks losing the historic fabric which makes the city unique.’
Tom Taylor, Conservation Adviser for the The Victorian Society, adds; ‘The industrial heritage of Sheffield is internationally important and has left a physical legacy of building types which characterise Sheffield strongly as a place. In very important ways Sheffield’s history — especially its Victorian history — characterises its built identity.’
Sheffield’s historic buildings are one of the great assets of the city. The Victorian Society urges Sheffield City Council to rethink these destructive cuts – as the effects would be hugely damaging for the future of Sheffield’s built heritage.
18/11/2019
