matthew’s manifesto for the kingston upon thames society

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