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Beware the Ides of March
There are ominous signs that March will see the progression of government initiatives which will have profound impacts on the future of Hertfordshire. The first is the totally flawed response to the Inspector's report on the East of England Plan. The Civic Society has made its concerns known to Go East and in the main concur with the response of CPRE. We have also joined in the campaign led by the Civic Trust and numerous other amenity groups (representing something like four million people nationwide) in protesting at the loss of local democracy by the centralisation of planning as proposed by the Barker Rview. Just to add insult to injury we then learn that Stansted Expansion is proposed to g o ahead but we are reassured by a further inspection which may result in common sense prevailing. The Journal does not have the space to include details of these issues and many others but we would encourage readers to follow these topics in their newspapers, on radio, TV and, where they are able, to visit Civic Trust, CPRE, EERA and GoEast web-sites, see what is going on, and let your views be known.
The Civic Trust recently marked its 50th. Anniversary and we would like to share with you an extract from the Visions and Goals in the Annual Report.
There are over 750 Civic Societies with 250,000 members.
It is important to us that the outcome of our work:
There couldn't possibly be better reasons for getting actively engaged with Buntingford Civic Society which subscribes fully to the goals listed above. A good start would be to find out more by attending our AGM at the Seth Ward Community Centre on Thursday 19 April, having participated in �clean-up the Rib Phase II� on the previous Sunday 15 April. In between times you might care to join in the launch of the refurbished Town Sign which will celebrate both of our twinning partners and for relaxation visit the new exhibits at the Heritage Centre one of which will be on the Civic Society. By the way did you notice that the roof of the pump has been repaired - a super job by craftsman Dick Rye.
With our Councillors we are endeavouring to get our increasingly shabby High Street smartened up and in keeping with the commitment and vitality of retailers bringing new and traditional businesses to the Town. We are getting to the stage where "there is no budget" from EHC sounds too familiar and hollow when we see substantial work done in other locations.
Finally, with all the concern over speculative development, especially at Station House, why can't the Townsfolk express their view on how that 'place' should be for the next fifty years? The way things are at present a developer 'plans' in isolation, planning departments act as development controllers and nobody is saying let's develop that space in such a way that it works for people and in the future it will still be valued.
Derek K Cooper, Chairman.
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