Newsletter 44
Spring/Summer 2014 /
Annual General Meting
The thirteenth AGM was held on Thursday 10 April 2014 in the Holywood Old School.
The Chairman reviewed the main activities of the past yearincluding the promotion of repair work to the building at 1 Stewart's Place and participation in the working groups on the Public Realm Works and Masterplan. As a group, we are concerned about the future of the trees during the course of the Public Realm Works and the Chairman urged members to comment on the Masterplan proposals.
/ The Public Realm Work has started at each end of the town, here in front of the trompe l’oeil feature at Stewart’s Place. Concern was expressed about the future of the trees at Johnny the Jig and both the contractors and the Council were made aware of the interest of the public and the need to protect them during the construction phase. The result is that the roots are being protected while the new paving is being laid. Hopefully, the trees will survive and provide the town with their elegant presence for many years to come.The Membership Secretary reported that there were 220 members in 107 households and explained that the website is being updated. The Treasurer reported that there was anexcess expenditure over income but that the end of year accounts showed a healthy balance
The election of officers resulted in John Moore being re-elected as Chairman Nick Wright as Hon. Treasurer and Tony Merrick as Hon. Secretary. The committee will consist of Deirdre Thomas, Mike Wilson, Philippa Crone, Randal Hayes and Jack McCluggage, who were re-elected as Directors,and Louise Heatherley who was newly elected.
There was a general discussion about the Masterplan. It was evident that feedback from the public is important and an outlet for ideas could be through regular meetings of the different groups in Holywood. This is currently an ongoingprocess.
Our Guest Speaker, Arthur Acheson, a prominent Belfast Architect, gave an invigorating talk entitled "Civic Stewardship - Putting the band in the bandstand". His quirky title may have put members off attending the meeting but his talk was about the future of planning policy and he emphasised the need to streamline the process and for it to include grass-roots input. In his view, the order of approach should be maintenance, management and design, rather than in the reverse order which has been common practice up to now.
The underlying theme of his talk was the need for public consultation, or civic stewardship, and he illustrated this by an example from Ballymena where, during the exercise of regenerating a section of the town, there was an unused bandstand in a prominent position. The simple expedient of having first monthly but later weekly performances brought the area back to life - hence the title of his talk. He argued that introducing more discussion in the planning process, and thereby co-ordinating the comprehensive range of ideas and disciplines available, produced more popular results which were more likely to be fully used. This should happen early in the planning procedure of major schemes, and councillors should be prepared to learn, as the new Councils will have increased planning powers after 2015. He also believed that the Holywood Masterplan would also benefit from public feedback.
Finally he expressed the view that our tree planting programme was a perfect example of Civic Stewardship and was the only one in the whole UK which was a private initiative and congratulated the Group in its success.
May Day
/ In spite of the very inclement weather (perhaps that is an understatement) some stalwart members of the Committee put on the annual display for May Day. A new feature of a page of photos of details of buildings in and around the Town Centre created a good focus for discussion and encouragement and is well worth repeating. Much of the time was spent talking to the public about both the Public Realm works and the Masterplan. Copies of our response were available and a large number were taken away to be used as a basis of other responses. New members were signed up and quite a few postcards were sold. All in all, it was considered a day well spent by those present.King John’s Highway
Members will be aware that the public footpath cutting off the dangerous bends of Creighton’s Green Road and known as King John’s Highway has been blocked for some years. The Council held that this action was illegal and took the offender to court. After some considerable time the Judge’s decision was announced and the path was re-opened. If anyone knows of any similar situation where a public right of way has been illegally blocked please get in touch and we will seek to use this precedent to reinstate it.
Culture Night
The Annual Culture Night will take place on Thursday 19 September and we hope that all our members will be in a position to participate in the proceedings.
And Finally
Finally we would like to congratulate the outgoing Mayor, Councillor Andrew Muir on his successful year in office and thank him for all the support and encouragement he has given the Group over the years. We were honoured to have been one of the first groups he invited to a soiree during his term of office, /Pps Some members have yet to pay their annual subscription of £10.00 which should be sent directly to the Membership Secretary, Mike Wilson, Sumerseat, 5 Marino Station Road, Holywood, BT18 0 AH
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