PAUL BELFORD

Thirty years of international heritage practice — spanning commercial consultancy, museum leadership, World Heritage Site management and academic research — has built an unusually broad platform from which to advise clients across the full range of cultural heritage challenges.

That experience now informs Heritage Innovation's core consultancy offer: independent, expert and ethically grounded advice that goes beyond regulatory compliance to deliver genuine value for clients and their projects.

What this means for your project

• Heritage Impact Assessments and planning advice that are rigorous, well-evidenced and designed to achieve positive outcomes within the planning system — not merely to satisfy conditions.
• Historic building recording and archaeological services delivered to the highest professional standards, with clear and accessible reporting.
• Conservation Management Plans and heritage strategies for historic sites, buildings and landscapes — drawing on direct experience of World Heritage Sites, scheduled monuments, listed buildings and non-designated heritage assets across the UK and internationally.
• Heritage interpretation and public engagement strategies that connect communities with the places and stories that matter to them.

The experience behind the advice

• Leadership of cultural heritage projects and programmes with budgets up to £10m, working for governments, NGOs and private sector clients across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and beyond.
• More than a decade as CEO of a UK cultural heritage organisation delivering services to national and local government, private developers and heritage bodies.
• Non-executive experience across heritage organisations and visitor attractions with combined annual turnover exceeding £650m.

Effective expert witness evidence in heritage-related proceedings requires independence, analytical rigour, clear and accessible communication, and a thorough understanding of the policy and regulatory frameworks within which heritage decisions are made. These are qualities that thirty years of professional practice — and a career-long commitment to ethical and independent expertise — have built and tested across a wide range of complex heritage contexts.

Heritage Innovation is developing a formal expert witness practice, with a particular focus on planning appeals where cultural heritage is a material consideration. Paul Belford is currently completing specialist expert witness training in preparation for accepting instructions.

Relevant expertise

• Deep working knowledge of the national planning policy framework and its application to heritage assets — listed buildings, conservation areas, scheduled monuments, World Heritage Sites and non-designated assets — across England and Wales.
• Extensive experience preparing and reviewing Heritage Impact Assessments, Statements of Significance and Conservation Management Plans in connection with development proposals, providing the analytical foundation for robust and well-evidenced expert opinion.
• Direct familiarity with Historic England guidance, Cadw policy, and the heritage regulatory frameworks within which planning decisions are made and appealed.
• A published and peer-reviewed body of work on heritage policy, planning and ethics — including analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the heritage planning system in England — that provides an authoritative academic grounding for expert opinion.

Independence and ethics

• An expert witness's primary duty is to the court or tribunal, not to the instructing party. That principle of independence is not merely a procedural requirement — it is central to the way Heritage Innovation operates across all of its work. Paul Belford's recent co-authored book Ethics in Archaeological Practice (Routledge) and his long-standing engagement with professional ethics through the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists reflect a commitment to independent and ethical practice that is directly relevant to the expert witness role.

Enquiries

• Heritage Innovation welcomes preliminary enquiries from solicitors and barristers regarding expert witness instructions in planning appeals and related heritage proceedings. Please get in touch to discuss whether Paul Belford's expertise is appropriate for your case.

• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA)
• Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA)
• Civil Aviation Authority A2 CoC UAV licence
• PhD, University of York
• MA, University of Sheffield
• BSc, University of Sheffield