English Heritage has published the 2012 Heritage at Risk Register. It is available at http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/heritage-at-risk/

Medway has the worst record for our corner of the South East when compared with the entirety of Kent.  There are 12 listed buildings/sites and 3 whole conservation areas at risk. Particularly of concern for Rochester are 351 High Street, Rochester, the Old Tythe Barn in Frindsbury, St Barts Chapel and the entire Star Hill to Sun Pier Conservation Area that is described as in decline.

For the register as a whole, a total of 5,831 listed buildings, monuments, archaeological sites, landscapes, battlefields, protected wrecks, places of worship and conservation areas are now on the Register.

Excluding listed places of worship (for which the survey is incomplete), 1,150 assets have been removed from the list for positive reasons since the Register was launched in 2008. The sites that remain at risk tend to be the more challenging ones where solutions are taking longer to implement.

Highlights from Heritage at Risk 2012 include

• 292 local planning authorities have taken part in the survey of conservation areas
• Of the 7,976 conservation areas that have been surveyed, 524 (6.6%) are at risk
• Nationally, 3% of grade I and II* listed buildings are at risk. The proportion varies from 1.7% in the South East to 6.1% in the North East.
• 6.1% of England’s 1,617 registered parks and gardens are at risk
• 16.6% of England’s 19,759 scheduled monuments are at risk
• A total of 318 entries were removed from the register in the last year, but 360 were added, a net increase of 42 entries
• 1,150 assets have been removed for positive reasons since the Register was launched in 2008.

To coincide with the publication, English Heritage is embarking on an ambitious project to see if it is possible to assess the condition of England’s 345,000 grade II buildings.

Thanks to Civic Voice for this summary of the register.