Civic Voice (CV) has outlined the importance of having a civic outlook on life, and is urging those in the West Country to help form new societies.
Civic Voice writes:
The phrase ‘civic society’ might seem outdated – something the Victorians may have dreamed up to keep the horrors of the Industrial Revolution at bay – but new oxygen is being breathed upon the concept in the past few years and now a nation-wide movement is looking to strengthen its ties with the Westcountry.
For decades local preservation and conservation groups were overseen by an organisation called the Civic Trust, which was eventually disbanded six years ago – after which it has been superseded by a new body that is now looking to attract interest from Devon, Somerset and Cornwall. There are currently around a dozen regions being taking part at the national level of the new Civic Voice organisation, but as yet the Westcountry remains unrepresented.
Now, with confirmation that national chairman, Freddie Gick, will soon be visiting Devon to meet with the Torbay Civic Society, it is hoped that a meeting of interested local activists will come together in South Devon later in the autumn.
Torbay Civic Society chairman, Ian Handford, told the WMN: ‘With the amazing growth of Civic Voice in the last five years – and its successes in lobbying the Government on behalf of its heritage and planning role – I believe that there is enormous potential for community groups throughout the Westcountry to achieve influence at a national level by joining Civic Voice. If a regional body is set up, then my hope is that conservationists and preservationists from every walk of life will bring their local group into the fold,’ he added.
In a special interview with the Western Morning News, Civic Voice director, Ian Harvey, explained what his organisation was all about… ‘We’re trying to encourage communities and individuals to play greater role in their towns and villages and their future. ‘We work with local groups across the country, but it’s a bit more fragmented than we’d like it to be,’ admitted Mr Harvey. ‘At the moment there are 300 groups and 150,000 members – so we’ve had a fantastic start. We’ve also got MPs on board and we’ve had both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, as well as various ministers, at our events. But going forward over the next five years there’s going to be a lot going on. The Government is talking about a lot more house building and localism. Okay – but the houses are going to have to be built somewhere. So there’s a real opportunity for people to shape their future over next 30, 40, 50 years…’
Mr Harvey added: ‘The government is trying to create a space where people can embrace these powers – so let’s get involved. Why not join a local civic society? And if your area hasn’t got one – we will help set one up.’
Asked if such duties weren’t simply replicating the work done by bodies such as town and parish councils, Mr Harvey replied: ‘I support local councils 100 % – we work with them – they’re are closest partner. We work to support them, but if you don’t have either a good local council or a civic society, what drives us is our wish for more people to play a role. For example, the Convent Garden site in London would not exist in the way it does today if wasn’t for civic society – there was a proposal to put a road through,’ he said. ‘Every day of every week our members are involved with supporting things like local libraries and so on.
‘Often you only notice a lot of our work if you go to a town that doesn’t have a civic society. It’s what we call the ‘broken window effect’. One window gets broken, then the same happens next door – and before you know it you’ve got thousands of white UPV windows replacing the old ones.
‘We have 9000 conservation areas across this country that came about because of civic societies,’ said Mr Harvey. ‘Every area and region is different – but basically what we want is for more people to say: ‘Let’s get involved’.’
In a bid to enhance this work since its inauguration, the new institution has been creating a regional structure of committees which involve locally based civic societies and other similar local groups. These develop grass-root ideas and opinions which are then passed through the regional to a national forum.
Civic Voice currently offers its members advice and access to technical support across a wide number of issues including planning law, housing and new developments etc, but – unlike its predecessor – relies totally on subscriptions for its core funding.
Members of the Torbay Civic Society recently attended their first national forum in London to assess the new organisation and afterwards contacted community activists in their area to see if a Devon Regional Forum of Civic Voice might be viable.
‘Should anyone representing a local society or group involved with conservation, preservation, the environment or the built heritage be interested in joining us at the first informal meeting, we should be very pleased to hear from them,’ said Mr Handford. To register interest email: civicvoicedevonforum@gmail.com
