THE AIMS OF THE SOCIETY
The Kingston upon Thames Society exists to promote high standards of planning, conservation and design in the Royal Borough.
It seeks to inform the people of Kingston about major planning issues affecting our town.
The Society provides a forum through which the people of Kingston can play a part in ensuring that our heritage of historic buildings is preserved, and that the style and scale of new developments are in harmony with the existing townscape.
LATEST NEWSRe-imagining Kingston was the title of an event in the Festival of Ideas, THINK KINGSTON, currently running. This was an opportunity to hear some of the recent findings of research commissioned by the Borough into the effect the opening of the Rose Theatre might have on the night time economy of the Town Centre. This seemed to be an opportunity to gauge public interest in the project as well as learning what the research had to say. It was extremely disappointing therefore to find the audience was composed largely of councillors, officers of the council and the movers and shakers who had brought the project to fruition. Members of the audience were so well known to one another that the chairman did not have to introduce himself, (it was Derek Osbourne, leader of the council) and was able to call those wanting to ask a question by their christian name. However the most interesting thing to emerge from the research was that compared to other hot-spots like Preston, Kingston was well managed and doing well. The main problem appeared to be that there were two centres of activity - the rotunda and the two main night clubs, then the Riverside now including the theatre. In between these two centres are an empty Market-Place and deserted Clarence Street. It will be interesting to see whether K+20 addresses this problem.
Members may recall that one of my New Year resolutions was to raise the profile of the Society. I have a lot of work to do as I was the only questioner refered to as the lady in the middle. I can promise you the committee IS working on it.
TOPIC OF THE MONTH
‘K + 20’: THE
The Society’s representatives attended and spoke at several sessions of the examination in public of the TownCentre Action Plan (K+20). This whole plan has been thrown into disarray because of an EU ruling which made the Council’s partnership with Hammersons illegal because it had been agreed without going to public tender. At one session a Council officer said they would now go through a public tendering exercise.
Our representative asked whether the basis on which such tenders would be sought was to be made public. He was told that such information was confidential. This means that again the Society and other interested parties would be commenting on particulars rather than principles. The Society has therefore written to the Leader of the Council, the Chief Executive and the Head of Legal Services asking for this information under Freedom of Information legislation.
We will keep members informed.
See 'How to Join', and let your voice be heard in consultations on the future of our town centre.