A new civic society for Stockton?
Over the last few years, people from Stockton have come together under the banner of the Central Stockton Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) Forum to provide essential community stakeholder input to heritage-led regeneration programmes, without which funding would not have been secured and heritage improvements would not have been delivered. This forum has helped the Council to secure over £7million in investment into Stockton’s built heritage.
The forum has also provided specialist historic knowledge and support to grant funded projects and participants – from property developers to heritage groups, Council staff, students and young people – and has helped to promote Stockton’s heritage and its wider Town Centre offer locally, nationally and internationally.
Funding for the forum is now coming to an end but the need for community engagement continues. Kevin Trickett, president of Wakefield Civic Society and chair of YHACS, was recently invited up to Stockton to address two public meetings to stimulate some interest in the creation of a new civic society for the town.
There is to be a further public meeting on Monday, 22nd May (this time without Kevin’s input) for anyone in the Stockton area who might be interested in setting up a new group. This will run from 10.30 am until 11.30 am at Stockton Town Hall (ground floor Committee Room) and will be chaired by local resident Alan Betteney who has been closely involved with the forum to date.
Kevin said that there was sufficient interest from the two talks he gave to suggest a new civic society for Stockton could be a real possibility and he looks forward to hearing more in due course. We shall keep our fingers crossed!