Roger Beard and Richard Papps who gave the musical entertainment for the evening, with your Chairman, Alan Nicholson (centre)
Chairman's Report for the year up to May 2018
Dear Members
In the year under review, the Civic Society has continued to operate in various areas.
The planning group has met, where appropriate, to discuss and study planning applications and make appropriate comments where required.
Last autumn, the Executive invited NELC Chief Executive Rob Walsh, to speak, and answer questions, at a meeting about the Grimsby Plan. That meeting closed with an assurance that the Civic Society would host a public meeting at which the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council would inform and take questions about the progress made up to that point. Other people have been invited to speak to the Executive, most recently, Emilie Wales, Conservation Officer for NELC.
Early in the year, the new website was commissioned, and two of our executive members received training from the web designers in inputting information to it. It will continue to develop as time goes on.
I have attended the Yorkshire & Humberside Association of Civic Societies AGM in Harrogate, and a Futures Training Course at Leeds Civic Trust. I found both these events to be very useful in being able to make contact with other Societies and to share ideas in a world where Local Government is being continually eroded.
Social
The Annual Social event, whilst suffering from a low turnout, was enjoyed by those present.
Projects ( completed and in progress)
- June 2017 our visit to Hull, City of Culture 2017was well attended, of great interest and ably supported by a member of Hull Civic Society.
- Summer 2017 display of “Notable Names” of people born in Grimsby, commissioned and now hung in The Yarborough Hotel, Grimsby
- Autumn 2017 Freshney Clean-up was attended by members of the Society (the spring clean-up later than planned use to bad weather.
- December 2017 unveiling of Blue Plaque at The Heritage Centre to commemorate the achievements of Brenda Fisher. (This unveiling prompted me to look at ways in which we could expand in this direction, and I have attended funding courses and seminars with this in mind)
- The Exec. Committee has spent a lot of time over the past year developing our policies and procedures to ensure our compliance as a charity with matters such as Code of Governance and, most recently, the new General Data Protection Regulations. Since the invite letters were sent out, a new Privacy Policy has been written, and is available to read, and will shortly be on our website.
Finally, on a very sad note, I must mention the death last year of our long standing Executive Committee member, Alan Holmes. Alan was a member of the Executive a long time before I joined and was our Treasurer until illness prevented him from attending meetings. Long standing memorials to Alan are the “Welcome” signs at Cleethorpes and Grimsby Railway Stations, for which he did a tremendous amount of work to enable them to be commissioned.
Alan Nicholson