Minutes of the meeting can be found HERE
Chairman Gillian Postill reported a busy year for the society both locally and nationally. She reminded members that the society's most effective tools are its membership and its communication processes.
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| Members and Friends |
Her report focussed on two key aspects of the society's work: preserving community assets and finding an appropriate regeneration scheme to ensure a viable and vibrant Marple for the future.
The two means identified to achieve this are listing "Assets of Community Value" (ACV's) and "Neighbourhood Planning". Both these community powers were created by the Localism Act of 2011.
An ACV can be anything that is valued by the local community - open spaces, public buildings, libraries, pubs etc. The first three listings of ACV's are now in place with more in the pipeline. The three main political parties are committed to ACV's and, following lobbying by Civic Voice, it seems likely that the next government will strengthen the legislation, adding greater protection to ACV's.
Regarding planning, she said that despite running numerous workshops and public consultations showing substantial support from residents, our call for an independent urban design study to develop a strategy to guide the development of the town centre has met with resistance from decision makers. Last year the society learned that the council's local plan for Marple (the Allocations DPD) has been put on indefinite hold leaving Marple hugely vulnerable.
In view of this, she reported that the society has set up a steering group to examine Neighbourhood Planning and to carry out preparatory work with a view to implementing a Neighbourhood Plan.
A Neighbourhood Plan allows local residents and businesses to have their own planning policies that reflect their priorities, deliver tangible local benefits and have real weight in planning decisions.
Read Gillians report in full HERE
Treasurer Gordon Johnson presented the annual accounts. Gordon reported that we had a surplus for the year of £76.46 (compared to £190.47 last year) and the balance of the society's funds is £2480.92 (compared to £2404.46 last year) which is sufficient to fund the society's activities throughout 2015.
He paid tribute to Mike Kinder, our honorary examiner for many years, and confirmed that Mike has agreed to continue for the coming year.
The society's accounts for the year ending 31st December 2014 can be viewed HERE
For a summary of the society's work during 2014 see the Trustees Annual Report HERE
The election of officers and committee members was followed by a talk by Ian Harvey, Director of Civic Voice.
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| Ian Harvey, Director Civic Voice |
In an inspiring, and frequently amusing, talk Ian spoke about the history of the Civic Movement and his recollections of the formation of Civic Voice five years ago following the demise of the Civic Trust.
He went on to talk about the Civic Voice manifesto (Localism for Real), the first in the Civic Movements history, which proposes measures to achieve real local input to the shaping of our towns and villages, and collaborative planning (Collaborative Planning for All) to bring collaborative processes into mainstream planning.
He emphasised the grassroots approach of Civic Voice using the example of the campaign to register "Assets of Community Value". This campaign was proposed by Marple Civic Society at the Civic Voice AGM in November 2014 and was subsequently adopted by Civic Voice. Since then the campaign has led to a huge surge in registrations nationally.
Finally, he praised the local work of Marple Civic Society and encouraged us to press forward with our listing of Marple's "Assets of Community Value" and our preparatory work for a Neighbourhood Plan. For more details of Ian's talk see HERE
Photos by Arthur Procter, more here
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