A £40 000 grant for a pilot study of the service, known as Monument Watch UK, has been offered by charity the Pilgrim Trust, and an advertisement for a development officer is to be published next month.
The scheme will enable owners of historic buildings to subscribe to a service involving regular inspections and simple repairs by professionals and craftsmen qualified in building conservation.
Save Britain’s Heritage chairman Marcus Binney said: “The service will be open to all owners of listed buildings who might want to subscribe.” Subscribers will pay an annual fee on top of an hourly rate for repairs.
The proposed service is inspired by the renowned Monumentenwacht scheme established in The Netherlands in 1973. In this scheme, 45-50 teams of qualified craftsmen and surveyors carry out inspections and first-aid on the country’s 10 000 listed buildings.
In Britain, the proposal grew out of a seminar held by the University of the West of England earlier this year.
A steering committee has been set up including Save Britain’s Heritage, the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings, the University of the West of England, the Bath Preservation Trust and the National Trust.
The plan is to set up a pilot service with the backing of a local authority. Bath City Council and Hampshire County Council are believed to be keen to promote the service, particularly for historic churches, schools and buildings in private ownership. The National Trust is interested in using the service to maintain the minor buildings that are not open to the public on its estates.
Save Britain’s Heritage secretary Richard Pullen describes the proposed service as primary conservation. He said: “Proper maintenance is the most cost-effective way of looking after historic buildings. We want a good, qualified builder to turn up once or twice a year, make a quick inspection and carry out small repairs on the spot, such as cleaning gutters, replacing tiles and repointing using matching lime mortar.
“We have had a lot of discussion about how the service would fit into the British scene. In The Netherlands, there is only one service offered to all subscribers. But in this country, different owners have different requirements. We would like to offer a raft of different options.
Pullen cites the case of the Council for the Care of Churches, which has access to qualified expertise for its five-yearly inspections of churches. But it finds regular repairs to church roofs more difficult to organise because of the difficulty of access.
The plan is to set up a pilot project within a year. After that, the steering committee will be looking for cash from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which Pullen says is sympathetic to the idea. In The Netherlands, the scheme is half funded by the state.
