Aimée L Felton 2012

33 significance. Whilst many historic buildings are not required to meet Building Regulations but merely achieve a best practice standard due to protection of historical, architectural and culturally significant fabric. Although the Disability Discrimination Act is more strongly enforced, it is in the best interest of many organisations, especially those with visited sites, to ensure that access for all is achieved. Maintenance is a paradigm of the new 21st century approach to conservation theory, with the potential to be an effective and economically sound approach to maximising the benefit and use of the historic buildings within the UK. However, maintenance within the commercial sector is seen as a department lacking kudos- often considered to be the lowest rung of the corporate estates management ladder. As expected the maintenance service has an ever increasingly strong voice within the larger heritage sector organisations, whilst there is little evidence of representation or emphasis elsewhere (Dann et al . 2003:p7). Primary research by Dann, Worthing and Bond (1999:p147) highlighted the discrepancy between the importance of maintenance and the low status it holds in commercial organisations, where 83% of maintenance managers having no responsibility for the implementation of any maintenance work (a sample size of 36 was utilised in this research). In an ideal world, maintenance managers would be carefully selected, highly qualified specialists, trained in diagnostic and maintenance techniques. However, bearing in mind Three•Six The status of maintenance THREE Chapter Three - Literature Review Aimee Felton