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Matthew’s Manifesto
Kingston upon Thames Society
Wednesday 18 February 15
This is what I am going to talk about
Something about me
The sorts of buildings and places that I like
Things I like and dislike about Kingston
What all this means for the Society
Let’s talk about me! But only for a little while
I moved to Kingston in ‘87
I work as an IT/Management Consultant
I have worked for Dorset County Council, Logica, as a freelance, IBM, Charteris, London Borough of Lambeth, Logica (again) and am now at CGI
MC is about people, process and technology
I was a governor at The Mount for over ten years
The school improved a lot in that time, mainly because we appointed the right Head
I was Chair of Governors for several years
Relationships with councillors were generally good and with officers generally bad
Some of the things that I like Do you know where they are?
Grand public spaces
Small public spaces
Attractive pedestrian routes
Narrow lanes to explore
Trains, trams and buses
Modern buildings
Quirky buildings
Funky bridges
Street art
Some personal thoughts on Kingston The good, the bad and the indifferent
Out of Order is brilliant
Kingston Station is a problem in several ways
Surbiton Station is a gem
Canbury Gardens could be so much better
How did this happen?
The Ancient Market gives the town a centre
The riverside is a good place to walk
Tolworth Tower is an icon
What all this means for the Society What we do and how we do it
This is what I think the Society is here to do
Protect the things we like about Kingston
Celebrate them so that they can be appreciated by more people, which in turn helps their protection
Enhance Kingston to make it a better place to live
These are the things that we do now
Protect
Monitor planning applications
Celebrate
Run the Heritage Open Days
Open Coombe Conduit
Give Townscape Awards
Enhance
Support good development schemes and suggest changes to poor ones
These are some things I would like to see us try Protect
Get more buildings listed, e.g. ACVs
Campaign more on the schemes we feel strongly about (good or bad)
Improve the planning application process
Celebrate
More visits to good buildings like the Quaker Centre
Design walking tours of the main sites
Join Open House
Build a photo library of our best buildings and places
Enhance
Support specific projects, e.g. Canbury Gardens Bandstand
To do more, we would need more people to be involved
Members to think of projects and contribute to them
Public and local organisations to work with us on campaigns
Councillors and officers to make the right decisions for the Borough
National organisations for guidance
Media to spread our message
I want to improve the dialogue with our members
More meetings and more types of meetings
More emails
More online tools like Facebook and Twitter
More chance for you to hear from us and for us to hear from you
I want more people to know about us
Our website has been restructured and has more content, e.g. our comments on planning applications
We will send more letters to newspapers and write more press releases
I want us to engage more with councillors and officers
Cllr. David Cunningham is RBK’s appointed link to the Society, we need to use that
We have two meetings with officers scheduled
We are arranging a meeting with the Leader of the Council re TOPO
I want us to use the expertise of organisations
English Heritage are the custodians of Coombe Conduit and of the Heritage Open Days
Civic Voice are the national charity for the civic movement in England
London Forum is a charity established to protect and improve the quality of life of people in London
I want us to work better with the local newspapers
The local newspapers are very good at covering local stories
We are not so good at giving them decent stories to tell
We need to understand them better to improve our coverage
I want us to think about our organisation too
Does the structure and membership of the committee match what we are trying to do as a Society?
Can we delegate some things, e.g. visits, to members who are not on the committee?
I want us to improve our internal processes
Continue to refine the process for reviewing the weekly list
Monitor RBK meetings so we can intervene on items that concern us
Define, and publish, what the Society thinks is good and bad
Plan events like Townscape Awards to allow more time for member involvement
Matthew’s Manifesto means
Building our own capacity and using that of other groups so that we can do more things
Improving our ways of working so that we can do things better
Above all, it means communication, dialogue and co-operation