Protecting the past and planning the future: conservation planning and urban change in historic city centres

This paper examines the impact of conservation policy from the late-1960s to the present on the commercial core of the city of Worcester in the U.K. Using data from local authority planning records, it examines the complex relationship between conservation policy and other development concerns through a focus on the outcomes of planning negotiations manifest in the changing nature, location and architectural style of major development proposals. Detailed consideration of major development proposals from the late-1980s onwards reveals the way in which the 'heritage map' of area and asset designation influenced the nature and location of development. Using insights from Conzenian urban morphological approaches to the assessment of townscape character, the paper reflects on the extent to which understanding of the existing urban form and character of the area informed these development proposals and outcomes.