‘Civic Trust’s woes will not affect us’
Apr 21 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
THE body which champions North East buildings and landscapes stressed last night it will continue its work.
The pledge comes after the Civic Trust, with offices in London and Liverpool, was placed in administration.
But Graham Bell, director of the Newcastle-based North of England Civic Trust, said: “We are greatly saddened by this news as the Civic Trust has made a huge contribution to the sector since it was founded in 1957.
“However, as a completely independent charity operating across the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire, the North of England Civic Trust is unaffected by this and continues to trade as usual.”
The Civic Trust ran events such as its prestigious annual awards set up in 1959 and are one of the oldest built environment award schemes in Europe, recognising outstanding projects in architecture, planning, environmental design, landscape, public art and urban design.
It also managed the Green Flag Award Scheme for parks and green spaces, the Green Pennant award for community and voluntary groups who successfully manage their own green spaces and the Heritage Open Days (Hods) programme.
Mr Bell said that the North of England body has been involved in Heritage Open Days in Tyne and Wear for a number of years.
It means that Tyne and Wear’s immensely-successful annual Hods programme, which staged 191 events and attracted 46,853 visitors last year, will go on.
In fact, funding has been won to extend the Hods programme this year into Northumberland.
Mr Bell said that he will meet his counterparts in the Scottish and Welsh civic trusts to see if any of the Civic Trust’s programmes can be rescued.
“We can maybe salvage something from the wreckage,” he said.
“I think the biggest blow is the loss of a national voice to Government for the hundreds of civic societies across the country.
“But what we don’t want to happen is that people assume that the North of England Civic Trust is also at risk. We have always been completely independent of the Civic Trust and we will continue.
“The North of England Civic Trust has always worked closely with local groups, and will continue to do so.”
The Civic Trust said that the decision to go into administration had been “agonising”.
“It has become clear that severe funding constraints being imposed on local authorities and our other current and potential funders as a result of the credit crunch will mean that even our current, modest financial forecast for the next few months is unlikely to be achieved.
“The Trustees are acutely aware of the Trust's 52-year history and legacy.
“Working with the Administrator we aim to ensure that, where possible, key programmes currently in place are handed over to other organisations.
“We appreciate this news will come as a shock and there will be understandable anger and disappointment that the outcome was not otherwise.”
