TrustNews Dec 21

Civic Voice: promoting pride of place

Joan Humble, Chair of Civic Voice, the national body for civic societies

 

On Monday 8th November, the new Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove MP, was questioned by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee on his department's plans for the future. This was a useful opportunity for the Secretary of State to set out his vision for his new brief and provide more clarity on what the ‘levelling up’ agenda means for the day-to-day operation of government. Mr Gove said that he thinks the key to "levelling up communities” is improving four areas: local leadership, living standards, public services and "pride of place".

 

It also gave us at Civic Voice, the national body for civic societies, an insight into the new Secretary of State's thinking, which we can disseminate to all civic societies and community groups across England. We know that our member civic societies like the City of Winchester Trust are keen to hear more about the government's ambitions for levelling up and its latest thinking on reform of the planning system, following the controversial Planning White Paper of 2020. More importantly, what do these national policy changes mean for Winchester?

 

In the session, it was insightful that Mr Gve said that planning reforms would not be abandoned altogether. Civic Voice is hearing that there will no longer be a Planning Bill - instead, there will be a Levelling Up Bill with planning clauses at the next Queen's Speech. We did hear that the government wants to move to a position where communities "accept and welcome" new development. Supporting and celebrating high quality design and architecture when we see it through local design awards schemes and the national Civic Voice Design Awards, could be key to this. The City of Winchester Trust has nominated several Civic Voice Design Award winning projects in recent years, including Winton Chapel, University of Winchester (awarded Overall Winner 2017) and the St. Valentine's Close development (Highly Commended 2016).

 

 

However, we were particularly pleased to hear Mr Gove's thoughts on wanting to strengthen "pride of place." Civic societies and trusts have been champions of what makes places attractive, enjoyable, and distinctive for generations. Across England, from Winchester to Windermere, there are hundreds of volunteer led and community based civic societies that work daily to remind us of what is important in our local areas and campaign for its future. The City of Winchester Trust's motto, "Conserving the past, Enriching the present, Shaping the future” says it all, and fostering civic pride is central to this.

 

Over the past ten years, countless improvement schemes of all kinds have been undertaken by civic societies in cities, towns, and villages up and down the country. These have been carried out all year long by volunteer place leaders like the City of Winchester Trust, sometimes in collaboration with local authorities or business improvement districts and sometimes alone.

 

Streets have been cleaned, historic buildings saved, litter picked, trees planted, plaques erected, flowers planted, rivers cleaned, events organised and places championed!

 

There are so many ways to show you have pride in your place and to play your part. Whether you fundraise, get more young people involved, harness the internet and social media, help raise your society’s pro?le, engage business, maybe start a campaign - there is something we can all do. What would you like to see happening in Winchester to show pride in your place? Civic societies have a unique opportunity to showcase specific pride initiatives which will have long-lasting and positive impacts on their community and local area.

 

Civic Voice intends to share lots of what civic societies are doing to celebrate "pride of place" with Mr Gove in the next few months. What would City of Winchester Trust members like to do next year to highlight your local civic pride?

 

Civic Voice will be holding Civic Day 2022 on Saturday 18th June, a national day to inspire communities to work together to celebrate and champion where they live - to create civic pride in their place.