Matthew outlines his vision for the Kingston upon Thames Society in his manifesto. He wants the Society to do more to protect local buildings and spaces, celebrate Kingston's heritage, and enhance the borough. This includes getting more buildings listed, campaigning on important planning issues, organizing tours and events, and supporting specific improvement projects. Matthew also discusses ways to increase membership involvement, raise awareness of the Society, engage with local organizations and authorities, and improve internal processes. The overall goal is for the Society to build its capacity and work collaboratively to better protect, promote, and enhance Kingston.
2. 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
5. 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
7. 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
8. Some of the things
that I like
Do you know where they are?
27. What all this means for
the Society
What we do and how we do it
28. 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
29. 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
30. 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
31. 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
32. 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
33. 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
34. 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
35. 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
36. 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
37. 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?
38. 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
39. 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