Chairman's Message - TrustNews Summer 1996
The chips are now down! We must have courage and confidence, and just a little bit of luck! On 27 April 1996 the Trust put in a Planning Application to double the size of the Heritage Centre to include a new building to provide a viewing arena for the model of the city in 1870. One month later on 28 May 1996, the complex dossier containing the application for a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund was handed in to the Commission in St James Street in London.
Success in both the City Planning Department and in the Lottery Fund will lead on to the next step of intensive fund-raising to gather in the considerable outstanding finance needed to enable the project to go ahead. When the project is complete, all our efforts will be put into ensuring that visitor numbers, and hence income, reach their targets.
Failure in any of these areas will almost inevitably lead to the closure of the Heritage Centre, since we must make certain that sufficient funds are always available to carry out the mainline work of the Preservation Trust.
Whereas I fully realise that these are early days, when courage and optimism are paramount, it is not too early to make all Trust members aware of the countless voluntary, and often highly professional, hours that have already been put in under the leadership of Chris Webb. This has involved the architectural team under Michael Carden and Nick Bourne, the expert work of Roger Brown, the creator of the model who is masterminding the presentation of the model to the public by means of the audio script and the visual effects, and the overall co-ordination control put in by Bob Howland, especially over the submission to the Lottery Fund.
THE COUNCIL OF THE TRUST
It has long been the Trust's policy to have a serving City Councillor, who is also a member of the City Planning Committee, on the Trust Council.
Councillor Pamela Peskett has served the Trust since 1987, during which time she has been most helpful in keeping the Trust up to date with current City policies and intentions, and in representing Trust opinions to other Councillors. We are sincerely grateful to her. Pamela has recently left the City Planning Committee in order to give more time to the work of the City's sub committee for External Relations and Economic Affairs, and has offered her resignation from the Trust Council.
In succession to Pamela, we are very pleased to welcome Councillor David Attwell, who represents St Michael's Ward of the City. David is a member of the Planning Committee, and is also a member of three City working groups which are of great interest to the Trust: these are the Peninsula Barracks Working Group, the Winchester Movement and Access Panel, and the newly created working group concerned with studying what might be the development potential for the area of the city bound by The Broadway, Upper Brook Street, Friarsgate (including the open car parks on the north side) and Eastgate Street.
The Council of the Trust also has the pleasant task of welcoming back Pat Edwards, whom many members will know. Pat was elected to the Trust Council in 1977, when she represented St Paul's Ward. On being elected as Chairman of the City Planning Committee in 1983, she resigned from the Trust Council, but ever since we have always been aware that she has been taking an interest in Trust affairs.
In May 1996 Pat did not stand again for re-election as a City Councillor. Without doubt, the City's loss is the Trust's gain, since Pat's experience is unequalled in just the sort of work with which the Trust is concerned.
THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING -THURSDAY 14 NOVEMBER 1996
I would like to encourage members to attend the Annual General Meeting.
During the business part of the evening, I try to give a brief resume of what the Trust has achieved during the past year, and what we hope to achieve during the coming year, which I hope will show you that we are putting your subscriptions to good use, even when it is a matter of steadily pouring water on a stone in order to achieve what we think is right in a few years' time!
The speaker this year will be Gilly Drummond, who has for many years been the Chairman of the Hampshire Gardens Trust. Gilly is an excellent speaker, and has chosen to speak on "Enriching our Lives with Gardens and Parks".
At the end of the meeting there will be a glass of wine, and also the opportunity for you to collar either me or another member the Trust Council to say "why doesn't the Trust do...?” or perhaps let us know of any aspect of our work that particularly interests you. Many of our priorities are influenced by just such conversations.