Heritage in Practice Hybrid Seminar

Alexandra joined Bath and North-East Somerset as a Conservation Officer in 2023, and is working on a pioneering Local Energy Advice Demonstrator (LEAD) project to motivate and inform the sensitive domestic retrofit of listed buildings across the district.

She has a background in planning and building conservation, specialising in the retrofit of historic and traditional buildings, and graduated from the University of York with an MA in Conservation of Historic Buildings. She worked in a voluntary capacity on the Heritage Planning Studio at York Civic Trust, and has volunteered with Historic England and the National Trust on projects including the survey of medieval wall paintings at Fountains Abbey.

For the last four years, she worked at Bath Preservation Trust, responding to hundreds of listed building applications per year, as well as helping to campaign for quality development and placemaking within the World Heritage Site.

Since graduating from UWE with an MA in Town and Country Planning Alexis started out in development management. After being made an offer he couldn’t refuse, Alexis transferred into transport planning where he now has over 10 years’ experience as a chartered Town Planner. Alexis has a wide range of experience from leading on the Western Gateway Sub-National Transport Body’s Rail Strategy, preparing major transport bids, writing supplementary planning documents, to delivering small scale projects on the ground. Not content with just the two degrees Alexis completed an MSc in Transport Planning and Engineering at the University of Southampton to broaden his knowledge and expertise in transport planning. Looking for new challenges Alexis moved back into development management and is BCP’s Transport Development Manager.

Charles Mynors was a local authority conservation officer for nine years, and then practiced as a planning barrister for almost thirty years, specialising in built heritage and trees. He used to write the law column in Context, and is the author of the principal textbook in this field, Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets (now in its sixth edition), and The Law of Trees, Forests and Hedges (now in its third edition). He has given many lectures to practitioners on those topics – as well as to students on conservation courses at Oxford Brookes, Bath and Birmingham City Universities. He was for many years Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester, and wrote Changing Churches: A Guide to the Faculty System (second edition coming soon). Since 2016 he has been working for the Law Commission, on the reform of planning legislation in Wales.

Fiona Cullen joined the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) in 2019. She undertakes a range of appeal casework including general planning and enforcement, but principally deals with appeals which concern the historic environment. Fiona has been part of the Heritage Training Team at PINS since 2022 and helps ensure Inspectors are kept up-to-date on matters relating to heritage.

Fiona’s first degree was in Geography, followed by a post graduate degree in Urban Conservation and postgraduate diploma in Town Planning. Before moving to PINs Fiona worked in local government as a conservation officer for 25 years, where her work included commenting on and determining heritage related applications, managing conservation grant schemes, heritage outreach work and involvement in high profile regeneration schemes. Fiona is a full member of the IHBC and RTPI.

Hannah is a Director at Pegasus Group, with her primary area of expertise being the built historic environment. Her experience is focussed on the

assessment of built heritage assets and the wider historic environment, providing advice to clients as to how associated constraints and opportunities may influence design along with conducting assessments of impact. Such assessments include the consideration of physical changes to Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Parks and Gardens, as well as changes in ‘setting’.

Her specialism extends to the assessment of significance of non-designated built heritage assets, in particular those of a 20th century date, and she has provided a number of representations to Historic England in association with Listing and Certificate of Immunity applications.

Hannah Porter joined PINS as a Planning Inspector in 2016. She undertakes a range of planning casework but her historic environment background and interest has meant she has dealt with numerous listed building and planning appeals, including public inquiries, where heritage issues are at play. Hannah has been part of the Heritage Training Team at PINS since 2021 and helps ensure Inspectors are kept up-to-date on matters relating to heritage.

Hannah’s first degree was in Design History after which she joined the Major Grants Team at the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). Hannah undertook a post-graduate degree in Building Conservation at Oxford Brookes, which took her into the role of Conservation Officer at a central London authority in 2005. In 2007 and up until joining PINS, Hannah worked for a  urban authority in the south-west, dealing with major applications for listed building consent, character appraisals and city centre renewal projects. Hannah has been a full member of the IHBC since 2008 and in June 2024 graduated from UWE with an RTPI accreddited MSc in Urban Planning.

Kate Biggs is a Principal Conservation Officer at Gloucester City Council

After graduating in Archaeology at York and working for York Archaeological Trust in post excavation publication and the development of the Archaeological Resource Centre, Kate returned to the Forest of Dean as Director of The Dean Heritage Museum Trust. She moved to building conservation in 2007 with the Forest of Dean District Council and then joined the Wye Valley AONB as Project Officer leading on the conservation of Scheduled Monuments and sites, including Piercefield Park. She then moved to Monmouthshire County Council. Kate joined Gloucester City Council in 2016 as a Conservation Officer.

In a voluntary capacity she has been responsible for the development, funding and completion of a number of conservation projects as founder and Trustee of the Forest of Dean Building Preservation Trust, her focus is on enabling practical and deliverable conservation.

Ken leads the Heritage Team in Atkinsrealis, which works internationally and has a reputation for innovation.  He has worked in the historic environment field for over 38 years and specialises in the assessment, management and regeneration of the historic built environment providing conservation and consultancy advice relating to historic buildings and areas. He has an MSc in Historic  Conservation from Oxford Brookes University and has a Certificate in Architectural History from Oxford University. He has taken a leading role in the historic environment work on many large infrastructure and development projects. Highlights include leading the built environment work for an area study for English Heritage (now Historic England) in advance of proposals for Heathrow expansion; leading the built heritage work for the 2004 Olympic Bid and the heritage work for its 2007 application; Crossrail, where he led the heritage work for the bored tunnels contract and various station design contracts;  Thames Tideway, where he led the historic built environment work and acted as Thames Water’s expert witness for the DCO; and HS2, where he led some station design opportunities studies. From 2018-2019 Ken was HS2’s Historic Environment Manager for Area South (Greater London). More recently he has helped develop a SUDS design guide for Edinburgh WHS and the city’s conservation areas. He is currently working on various historic bridges in the SE and various masterplans and is advising on the introduction of climate resilience measures to high grade listed government buildings in central London.  

Kim has a background in planning policy and research, starting her career with policy teams at Bristol City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council. This was followed by almost a decade as National Trust’s Planning Adviser for the East Midlands region. In 2023, Kim returned to the South West to take up a role with Historic England, advising local authorities on how to embed heritage considerations into their Local Plans and associated evidence. This currently includes a strategic study commissioned by Exeter City Council to identify key views, appropriate building heights and densities. She has postgraduate qualifications in Town Planning and Architectural History and is a member of both the RTPI and IHBC.

Michael Netter is the Director at the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (STBA), the Professional Services Officer at the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC), and Hon Secretary and Trustee at the Council on Training in Architectural Conservation (COTAC).  He holds an MSc in Historic Building Conservation from Kingston University and a BSc in Construction Engineering and Management from Purdue University.  Michael worked in Project Management for Skanska in the United States on commercial construction projects in the higher education, telecommunications, laboratory, and rail sectors, before transitioning into the heritage sector in the UK in 2013.  His MSc dissertation explored ‘BIM Applications to Heritage Buildings’ through a research-internship at Ramboll UK.  He takes part in the Climate Heritage Network (CHN) and has produced a podcast for the IHBC that raises awareness and understanding of how conservation philosophy and practice contributes towards meeting the challenge of climate change.

Biog to follow

Simon Hickman is the Principal Inspector of Historic Buildings and Areas for Historic England in the South West. He and his team are responsible for assessing several thousand applications to alter heritage assets across the South West region every year, and responding with expert advice. Prior to his move to Bristol, Simon worked for Historic England’s London region where he was the lead advisor on several heritage projects of national significance, including the restoration of both King’s Cross and St Pancras stations. He started his career in building conservation as conservation officer for Durham City Council, but was working in the field of heritage prior to that as the manager of a steam railway in Scotland. He holds a degree in Town Planning and a masters in Architectural Conservation from the University of Dundee. He can be followed on X/Twitter as @heritagelocum

Following many years in education and academic research, for which she gained an MA and PhD in Historical Studies, Ullin turned her attention to the historic environment, successfully gaining an MSc in Historic Conservation from Bath University as well as a Post Graduate Certificate in Architectural History from Oxford.

For the last ten years Ullin has worked predominantly as a local authority conservation officer, though she has also been involved in other projects, such as setting up Tewkesbury’s HSHAZ.

Whilst initially starting work in Regency Cheltenham, Ullin has experience of development management in a rural context, the Cotswolds, she is currently Principal Conservation Officer at Gloucester City Council