44 CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 IHBC treasurer Joanna Saady with Chris Connelley, who works for Eastbourne Borough Council and operates a monthly, informal, drop-in conservation advice service for householders and small businesses. Connelley said that he was there to help householders do the best for their listed buildings. That idea of assisting individuals chimes well with the IHBC’s Corporate Objectives, the first of which is ‘helping people by promoting the conservation and management of historic places as a unique and evolving resource for people, both today and in the future’. I have also been working recently to support local planning authority conservation services. I was fortunate to be invited to a ministerial meeting in March, held jointly between the DCMS and the MHCLG, set up to discuss proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, but which also covered other issues. The meeting was attended by some of the larger organisations in the heritage sector, including Historic England, the Heritage Alliance and the National Trust. I was able to point out the problem of conservation capacity and skills, and to contribute to the wider debate, including some discussion about planning fees. It would be naive to believe that my input will lead to major changes in government policy, but the fact that the IHBC was considered important enough to be invited to the meeting in the first place, and able to influence the discussion, is worthy of note. It reinforces our value to the sector and provides further justification for our progression towards chartered status. But I should return to listed red telephone boxes. Readers will note with some irony that having ensured the survival of so many of them, the impact of mobile phones has made them all but functionally redundant. Like many vacant buildings, they require new uses. The way in which they have been repurposed over the years for anything from book exchanges to defibrillators, and even tiny coffee shops, shows how the most unlikely buildings can be used creatively. All of which brings me, as I write, to my next big IHBC event, which is our annual school in Newcastle in June. Its theme of adaptive re-use is as relevant to telephone boxes as it is to other listed buildings. It promises to be an exciting, innovative and inspirational event, which will no doubt be the subject of future articles in Context. David McDonald OBE chair@ihbc.org.uk The Gateshead Millennium Bridge and Newcastle upon Tyne, location of the 2026 IHBC Annual School (Photo: Jimmy Guano, Wikimedia)
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