Major names are backing a plan to revive the stricken Civic Trust, which closed in April after a financial crisis.
The National Trust, Royal Institute of British Architects and English Heritage are supporting the creation of the Civic Society Initiative, which aims to take over the Trust’s role in support small heritage and amenity organisations in England.
Speaking at a launch event for the CSI, BBC personlality and former president of the Trust Rhys Jones, slammed politicians for their lack of interest in Britain’s heritage. “What I think is that politicians believe is that heritage and conservation are not political issues. They don’t think they need to be answerable, to be held to account and they don’t care.”
Rhys Jones said a national umbrella body was needed to give a louder voice to the hundreds of small local bodies which looked after local heritage because, “the worst things that happen [to heritage] in Britain don’t happen at a local level, they happen as a result of central policies”.
He added that the Civic Trust, which was founded more than 50 years ago, had saved London from urban motorways and helped save Covent Garden from demolition in the 1970s.
The CSI needs to raise £50,000 for a “fighting fund” says its director Tony Burton, who has stepped down from a senior post at the National Trust to head the new body. A convention for the UK’s 700 civic societies and groups is to be held in October to set up the new organisation and a national roadshow will canvass the opinion of regional societies. Meanwhile, English Heritage will run the trust’s Heritage Open Day schemes