Blog | Wakefield Civic Society celebrates its 50th anniversary

Wakefield Civic Society celebrates its 50th anniversary

Posted on 2 January 2014 by

2014 is a big year for Wakefield Civic Society! 

Established back in 1964 by a group of local people who were concerned about what was happening to the city in terms of its redevelopment, the Society continues its remit to raise awareness of the built environment and to campaign for the very best in architecture, design, town planning and conservation.

The Society is a registered charity, run by a committee of volunteers who care about the city and want to help make it a great place in which to live and work and to help to promote the city and surrounding areas to visitors.

The Society's President, Kevin Trickett said "The Society has a long tradition of championing good architecture and design. We regularly scrutinise planning applications and meet with developers and officials to discuss plans for new-build and restoration schemes; our objections to proposed developments when we make them are the sort of things that can command the headlines, but we do lots of other things as well and offer a wide range of programmed events for our members throughout the year. Many of these events are also open to non-members in line with our charitable purpose. 

"For our 50th anniversary year, we shall, of course, continue to look at planning applications and no doubt we'll have plenty to say as the year progresses but we also want to celebrate the year ahead - celebrate the Society's history and also some of the really good things that have happened in our city over the last 50 years. We'll be hosting our usual programme of meetings, talks, walks and social events, but we are also planning some special commemorative celebrations as well, and we'll be publicising the details for these as the arrangements are finalised. Our target is to run 50 events in our 50th year!"

The Society has set up a special Events and Exhibitions Sub-Committee to take forward the detailed planning but already there are four events booked in the diary for January alone with a joint meeting with Wakefield Historical Society on 8th January, the Society's regular Dining Club get-together on 9th January, a blue plaque unveiling on the 15th January and then particpation in the Wakefield Artwalk on 29th January. Further ahead, the Society will be leading a guided walk of the city centre for the Wakefield Festival of Food, Drink and Rhubarb in February and will be hosting a visit from Retford Civic Society to Wakefield in April.

Mr Trickett added "Yes, we're certainly going to be busy this year - as well as the 50 events, we're also looking to take the number of blue plaques we have in place up from 38 to 50 and we'd like to boost the number of corporate businesses who support us from around 20 at the moment to 50 by the end of the year. 

"Everyone benefits from an active Civic Society, so we'd like to recruit more members - we had one of our most successful years for recruitment in 2013 but we'd like to see more businesses join us this year!"

Keep an eye on the Society's website, Facebook and Twitter accounts for regular updates on this year's programme of events.