According to Scottish Canals the single most difficult part of establishing new moorings will be Scheduled Monument Consent (SMC) from Historic Environment Scotland (HES – they felt the need to put another word in the middle, they were called Historic Scotland). This is because seemingly all monuments that fall into this category have the same level of protection. So in effect adding a pontoon to the canal follows a similar process to trying to build an extension on Edinburgh Castle! More info is available on their website. Also from page 16-22 in this .pdf document. So tricky times ahead on this one as it appears that the vibrancy of the canals and moving boats matters less to HES than the canals looking like they used to ‘back in the day’.
In 1979 the canals were adopted as Scheduled Ancient Monuments by Historic Scotland. In order to make any changes to the canals, their banks or towpaths then SMC is required. There are case officers for the ‘east’ and ‘west’, and according to sources the man in the east can be rather tricky to convince. For example, permission to put a pontoon outside the new Bridge 49 Bistro was knocked back by HES because it would be out of place or interfered with the monument too much (i don;t know the exact reason). Never mind the fact that it means that trip boats can have ease of access to a new facility. A decision is meant to be due within 8 weeks and if knocked back there is an appeal process. If knocked back again, then the decision can be referred to ministers to overturn it. So all of that could potentially be a long process.
So the next task is to create a project outline showing the benefits of Community Moorings and the protection measures in place in terms of the heritage aspects. Then it will be a case of engaging with the case officers and hopefully building towards submitting a SMC application on favourable terms. HES promote engaging with the officer prior to submitting SMC applications so we shall! But first to get the arguments straight…
Chris O’Connell who is Scottish Canals’ Heritage officer has been really helpful on this and is willing to review a document intended for HES and help us get it right. He has obviously dealt with them many times. So this week i intend to put together a draft document for HES to explain the project and the benefits and to hopefully test the procedure on the field E of Park Farm site.