Civic Voice AGM - TrustNews Dec 12
John Beveridge attended the 3rd annual meeting held in Coventry on behalf of the Trust to together with representatives from about 65 other civic societies around England. During the year their first chief executive, Tony Burton, left for another position in the public or not for profit sector. We were all sorry to see him go as he had achieved a great deal in his three years there. He had led a very effective campaign to alter the new national planning policy framework, including lobbying Parliament, which resulted in a much more sympathetic set of policies for heritage, conservation and countryside interests. His successor, Steve Goodwin, comes with a broad range of experience in the public, private and charitable sectors. We hope he will be as energetic and effective as his predecessor; but one factor limiting this will be that his appointment is only part time. The trustees are taking a cautious view about their finances and are seeking ways of finding new sources of funding.
Topical issues raised included: the need to revitalise high streets and town centres; neighbourhood plans, a new concept introduced by the Localism Act; local listing; place checking and protecting; controlling the positioning of super broadband boxes. There has been quite a lot of public discussion about neighbourhood plans. Several societies have been frustrated in trying to progress these because of opposition from their local councils. In Winchester’s case some of the villages and small towns are at various stages in taking these forward; the Trust’s current view is that such plans are more difficult to pursue in a town the size of Winchester and that individual neighbourhoods could present a more manageable area to begin with.
Initiatives taken by Civic Voice during its short existence include introducing Civic Day, promoting heritage open days and conducting an annual civic survey among all societies. Some of the findings of the latest survey show that the current total number of societies, 500, in England is a decline of over 50% in 30 years. This Trust is one of the larger ones in terms of numbers, with the average being 300, our membership fees are in the middle which is comforting.
Free National Trust Day Pass
In the last edition of TrustNews we advertised that members are entitled to a free day pass as a benefit of the Trust’s membership of Civic Voice. One of our members had difficulties using the website links to print the pass. In helping him overcome this, we have since discovered an easier way of doing this. By using Google and searching for Civic Voice, a title is displayed for Civic Voice and the National Trust day pass. Clicking on this will take you to the day pass and you can then print this.