Welcome to the East of England Civic and Amenity Societies

The East of England Civic and Amenity Societies is an informal regional cluster of active civic and amenity groups. Its aim is to exchange experience among its members, and to organise meetings on topics of interest to them.

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March 2013 e-newsletter

Message from the Chairman

20 mph speed limit

I learnt several interesting things at a meeting on imposing a widespread 20 mph speed limit in a town:

The Department for Transport has announced that this is now a priority for consideration by local authorities
Some 20 towns now have 20 mph schemes, with a total population of 8.4 million. They include Edinburgh, Oxford, Bristol, York and Bath.
On average, the result is a 1.5 mph reduction in speed, and some 20% reduction in casualties
Most people are JIMBYS (just in my back yard): they want a scheme in their area but do not want to observe those in other areas. This is partly because they feel pressure to drive faster from other drivers, and they do not fear getting caught.They want a clear enforcement strategy, which targets taxis among other drivers, with more clear signs, particularly illuminated vehicle-activated ones.

May 2013

Gross national product

As a particle physicist, I have spent 40 years studying experimental data and I have learnt that one should never, never, quote data without including their likely errors. So why does the Office for National Statistics do it? We have learnt this week that last year it needlessly threw politicians and economists into panic by reporting that the GNP had decreased by 0.1%. That surely was a nonsense statement: can they really measure the GNP to an accuracy of less than 0.1%?

May 2013

Heritage Lottery Fund

The April meeting of the region's Historic Environment Forum heard a presentation about the Heritage Lottery Fund. Among the points made were:

The fund will award £375 million per year for the next 5 years, more than twice as much as was expected 5 years ago
In deciding on applications, the Fund has moved away from "criteria" and is concentrating more on "outcomes" related to the difference that is made through Lottery funding
In our region, Luton, Castle Point and Thurrock, the Fens, Broxbourne, Three Rivers and Watford, have had less money than average
There are open-grant programmes for different ranges of funding: £3k to 10k, £10k to 100k, and over £100k
In addition, there are various targeted programmes. One is for partnerships between a youth body and a heritage organisation, others for places of worship, parks, landscape, townscape heritage etc.
A programme to commemorate the First World War will be launched this summer

April 2013

East of England Estates Gazette

In a recent newsletter, the Cambridgeshire/Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership has drawn attention to a publication that carries news about various developments around the region.

April 2013

Bicycle paths

According to the 2011 Census, just less than 4% of residents in our region use a bicyle to travel to work, while in Cambridge it is more than a quarter. Even so, and rightly, there is strong campaigning for more cycle paths, and it is urged that they be at least 2m wide. But this can cause disfigurement to our precious green spaces, the more so if the paths are to be lit at night.

What is the most attractive solution?

March 2013

Heritage centenary

On 7 March I spent the day at an English Heritage master class to mark the centenary of the Ancient Monuments and Amendments Act, which is also being celebrated by a BBC4 series Heritage! The Battle For Britain's Past and by exhibitions at the Wellington Arch in London. Championed by the former viceroy of India Lord Curzon, the act introduced listing, and founded the national heritage collection of buildings now looked after by English Heritage. The searchable on-line list of listed buildings now has 375,000 entries, covering 500,000 properties.

The master class took place at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire. English Heritage has been restoring the house and a large area of formal gardens laid out in different styles. It is well worth a visit.

March 2013

Meeting of regional chairs

A second meeting of regional chairs took place on 25 February, together with four of the Civic Voice trustees. Civic Voice now seems to recognise that the disbandment of the old Civic Trust regional structure was a mistake, and it was agreed that the regional chairs should meet regularly, probably 4 times a year.

March 2013

Local listing

Following his offer at the last Civic Voice AGM to give advice to societies, at the January meeting of the EECAS Committee Peter Lee of the Peterborough Civic Society gave a short presentation on how the society had compiled a new list of Buildings of Local Interest. It was the view of the Planning Authority that the list should form an annex to the new Local Plan to ensure the Local Plan conforms to the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework. Since then there has been an exchange of experiences among regional chairs. It is clear that many local authorities are able to provide little effort or money, and so civic and amenity societies can play a valuable role. An example of a local list is that of Wakefield.

March 2013

Peter Landshoff: pvl at damtp.cam.ac.uk

Chairman, East of England Civic and Amenity Societies

Civic Voice now has 290 member societies, of which 29 are in our region: