Southern Comfort Meeting - TrustNews Spring 1993
The annual meeting of Southern Comfort was hosted by the Salisbury Civic Society on 11th October 1992.
Eighteen civic societies and preservation trusts from the south of England were represented by 70 delegates, including three from the Winchester Preservation Trust.
The morning programme consisted of presentations by the Wiltshire County Conservation Officer and the Under Secretary for the Department of National Heritage, Mr Robert Key, who is Salisbury's MP.
During a lunch-time tour of the Salisbury Cathedral Close, several examples of past, present and future planning problems were explained. These included alternative proposals for coach and car parking, and also a past scheme put forward by the Dean and Chapter for demolishing the exceptionally handsome house currently inhabited by the Right Honourable Sir Edward Heath and replacing it by a series of bungalows. Fortunately this "'proposal failed!
The afternoon session was taken up by group discussions of common problems.
Three major items of unanimity that came out of the meeting were:
- the poor standard and unsympathetic design of modern street furniture
- the plethora of traffic signs, many of which seem to be unnecessary
- the almost complete cessation of rehabilitation schemes initiated by civic societies, due to the uncertainty of grants and the fall in property values.
These meetings are of great interest to the Trust, and deserve our full support as a forum for exchanging information with similar organisations.