Aimée L Felton 2012

37 Chapter Four - Maintenance Management Chapter Four Maintenance Management Programmes Four•One Conservation plan FOUR A historic building is a body of evidence conveying messages from the past (Earl, J. 2003:p74). The objective of a conservation plan should be to decide the best policies and strategies for securing the future of the culturally significant fabric and aim how it might be best achieved within the framework of organisations priorities and agendas (Kerr Semple, J. 2000:p1). A sound conservation philosophy is not one based on a set of immutable rules but on a clear understanding of what, in each instance is being set out to achieve (Earl, J. 2003:p145) in relation to relative elements and their individual cultural significance. Conservation plans, as a continuation of a condition survey are a highly effective means of accurately estimating maintenance expenditure (Chanter, B and Swallow, P. 2007:p136). Whilst this is a highly recommended procedure, it is vital that these documents are not commissioned merely for budgetary or financial purposes, as they have the potential to have much wider applications. If solely commissioned primarily for financial management purposes, conservation plans tend to be limited in scope and require a more intensive routine of editing, replacing and updating than a professional approach at the outset. Many organisations tend to rely on several ad hoc surveys throughout a buildings life (Dann et al . 2003), which can be more financially expensive and with any data collected being impossible to unify and collate into a comprehensive approach (Chanter, B and Swallow, P. 2007:p136).This process effectively weakens the existing maintenance strategy and procedure, further discouraging non-heritage focused organisations from actively pursuing an effective strategy. Implementation of conservation plans within non-heritage organisations Aime Felton