Published on Tue Aug 16 08:30:21 BST 2011
HOMELESS people could help save historic buildings from vandals — as well as providing them with a home — if they were installed as caretakers of vacant old buildings, an expert on Ulster’s architectural heritage has said.
Speaking after a summit where environment minister Alex Attwood vowed to tackle a problem which appears to have been growing in recent years, Marcus Patton said that arsonists were less likely to strike buildings that were in use.
Mr Patton, a member of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society committee — which has often criticised Stormont for not doing enough to prioritise Northern Ireland’s old buildings — attended yesterday’s meeting and welcomed Mr Attwood’s attempts to address the issue.
Mr Attwood said he feared organised crime gangs could be involved in thefts and arson attacks on historic buildings across the province.
Yesterday’s meeting of experts followed a string of attacks on important sites in Northern Ireland.
Mr Patton told the News Letter: “It doesn’t save the buildings [already destroyed] of course but we welcome the attention which the minister and the DoE are giving to this problem.
“These crimes are against the community as a whole and it was good to see that recognised today.”
Mr Patton said that increased security alone could not secure historical buildings from those who want them destroyed.
He suggested that giving old buildings temporary uses — such as housing the homeless — could deter arsonists from attacking.
“If you have a building which is occupied — whether it is someone living there or a community group or arts group using the building and even if they are only there once or twice a week — the fact that the building is still used and not locked up means that vandals are much less likely to target it.
“They’ll go for an empty building because an empty building spells ‘about to be demolished’ as so often happens and therefore free to attack because no one else cares about it.”
He added: “There’s a waiting list of people who need houses; if they’re put into a house which is going to be demolished in due course, they are put in there on a caretaker tenancy, then they are not living on the streets so you are killing two birds with one stone.
“If it’s a derelict building and if it is a very big building it’s much more difficult but so many of these buildings are not derelict at the time when they become redundant.”
Mr Attwood said: “There may be issues on the island of Ireland about organised crime involvement.
“There is good evidence in Britain. We need to be very aware that there could be an interest from organised crime [in Northern Ireland].”
The minister said gangs could be stealing from buildings and causing extensive damage in the process.
The Heritage Crime Summit, held in Hillsborough Courthouse, heard from chief inspector Mark Harrison, policing and crime advisor to English Heritage.
Mr Harrison, who gave an overview of his work to save historic buildings in England, told the conference: “Heritage is a finite resource. Once it’s gone, it is gone. We are temporary guardians so we need to do right for future generations.”
But Mr Attwood said that while the event was organised to discuss attacks on listed buildings and other important sites, the event was dominated by calls for more to be done to protect and celebrate valuable buildings.
The minister said there had been around a dozen attacks on important buildings since the start of April, but he noted that this amounted to a fraction of the 8,500 sites deemed worthy of protection.
One of the venues recently attacked however was the historic Herdman’s Mill in Sion Mills, where a fire caused extensive damage last month.
The Co Tyrone mill dates back to the famine and is one of the most important industrial buildings in Ireland.
Mr Attwood said that in the wake of the conference, he would be immediately drawing up plans to develop better systems for protecting built heritage, and would reconvene a meeting of the experts gathered in Hillsborough.
The minister has also been in touch with the attorney general, John Larkin, to examine the sentences in place for those guilty of causing damage to historic buildings.