Griff Rhys Jones calls for entries

Griff Rhys Jones, President of the Civic Trust, has called upon members, architects, developers and property owners to enter the 50th anniversary Civic Trust Awards:

"I am passionate about the centres of our cities. We need good restoration, imaginative new building and proper regard for the spaces we all share. This is a terrific opportunity to recognise the good work that is being done instead of always concentrating on the problems and missed opportunities, so I urge you to nominate something that needs acknowledgement and support."

For further information and to see last year's winners, visit www.civictrustawards.org.uk

Green Flag Award Event 2008 Liverpool

GreenFlag Awards 2008 Over 1,400 people received their Green Flags at a ceremony in the new Liverpool Arena and Conference Centre at the end of July. Managed by the Civic Trust, this year saw the largest number of winners yet. 500 winners, councillors and members of North West civic societies enjoyed a celebratory dinner at St George's Hall in Liverpool, where they heard a keynote speech from Baroness Andrews. The winners of the new Special Awards for Innovation were announced to highlight the improvements which are being made to our parks and green spaces. For details of all the winners and your nearest Green Flag Award winning site, visit www.greenflagaward.org.uk

Free advice on licensing legislation

Philip Kolvin, Chairman of the Civic Trust and renowned Licensing Barrister, will be giving free advice on Licensing laws specifically for Civic Societies. We will be running these evening events in three locations:

Bristol on the 25th November
Leeds on the 8th December
London on the 11th December

If you are interested in attending these events please send your name and society to events@civictrust.org.uk stating which location you would like to attend. This will give us an indication of numbers.

Local funders to distribute grant to third sector

Local funders across England have been selected to award grants from �250 to grassroots third sector organisations as part of the Government's �130m Grassroots Grants programme.

Grassroots Grants, funded by the Office of the Third Sector and administered by the Community Development Foundation (CDF), will provide much needed grants to small third sector organisations and help local funders build endowment funds to provide a continuous source of small grant funding, by matching funds raised in the community.

Click here to find out more.

CSV - Make a Difference Day

CSV - make a difference day CSV Make a Difference Day is the UK's biggest day of direct volunteering during which around 125,000 volunteers get involved in activities ranging from knitting outfits for premature babies, transforming wasteland into community gardens, teaching IT skills and renovating homeless shelters - anything which improves the lives of others. There are countless ways to use your passions and skills to get involved.

Click here to find out more.

Better streetscape design

Castle Street /Blue Boar Row Salisbury District Council have responded to our request in GRO 25 for examples of Civic Society successes. They advise that they carried out a study of the Streetscape of Salisbury in 2005, which is being used as part of the current Salisbury Vision project, on the steering group of which the Society is represented.