SUPERMARKETS RULE OK ?

Contributed by Philip Crush Supermarkets are convenient. They offer easy parking, useful trolleys, a wide range of products, competitive prices, special offers and open at times that suit our busy lifestyles. BUT convenience costs. In the days before the growth of supermarkets every town centre was full of small local traders serving their local communities. [...]

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POWER TO THE NIMBY ACTIVIST

  By Griff Rhys Jones, by permission of Civic Voice and the  National Trust  A few years ago, standing on a bridge, overlooking a motorway that enabled people to roar across Glasgow at ninety miles an hour (at enormous cost to architecture and quietude) I was proudly told by a charming Civil Engineer that the [...]

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Development

Contributed by Dr Angela Drakakis-Smith As more building sites come on stream within Newcastle and although there appears to be no rapid uptake of these sites, it is important to be aware of any planning applications made for these sites to the Newcastle Borough Council (NBC) especially those in and on the edge of the [...]

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The Guildhall – Present and Future

Contributed by Jeanette Hilton Head of Customer Services, NBC   Early in 2008, I was fortunate to be given the remit to refurbish the Guildhall, one of Newcastle’s most iconic buildings, to create the Borough Council’s first combined front line services centre. This represented a huge undertaking; nevertheless we were determined it would be successful.  [...]

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Tesco Development – Summer 2010

Contributed by Mr Ron Redgewell  As we go to press, the Public Inquiry is taking place into Tesco’s planning application to nearly double the size of its store in Trent Vale. Fellow member, Paul Farrelly, MP, succeeded in convincing the Secretary of State to ‘call in’ Stoke-on-Trent Council’s decision to approve the application, thus enabling a Planning [...]

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Parks – Summer 2010

Contributed by Dr Angela Drakakis-Smith  Parks appear to be on the mind of the Newcastle Borough Council (NBC) of late.  The Queen’s Gardens and the Queen Elizabeth Gardens  were due for a makeover, as were the Brampton and Thistleberry Parkway – the latter being not so much a park as a landscaped walkway.  Plans and [...]

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A Building At Risk ?

Contributed by Diana Bevan   Recently a very old property in Lower Street, Newcastle was put up for sale.  It is a listed building but sadly has lain empty and unloved for several years. It will be remembered latterly as Maxim’s, the night club. The main house has an attractive frontage and at the rear [...]

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The Public Realm Project

Contributed by Dr Angela Drakakis-Smith   Anyone asking the question ‘What’s that?’ may be forgiven – and though there is ‘public’ in the title and we are, largely speaking, ‘The Public’- since few will have heard of this Project.  Some time ago the Civic Society was asked to comment on ‘a plan’ for the town [...]

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Newsletter – Summer 2009 – Heritage Protection

Contributed by Ron Redgewell   From Stonehenge to the mills of the Industrial Revolution, and from Norman castles to the site of the first TV transmission: in each generation, a small number of exceptional places mark and celebrate human architectural achievement, define an era, mark an important struggle or push new ideas to the limit. [...]

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Newsletter May 2009 – Nips and Tucks

Contributed by Dr. Angela Drakakis-Smith The Guildhall refurbishment, as far as we can see, has been a good thing.  The building is one of the now few elegant structures in the town centre and it is fitting that this now forms the town’s centre piece.  The fact that it has been transformed into a public [...]

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