Our AGM - Wednesday 21st September. Early preview of the Design Awards shortlist. Would you like to become a Trustee?
People's Choice Award - voting now open.
Sheffield Heritage Open Days - find out about our record-breaking HODS weekend.
Sheffield Retail Quarter - read our views on Phase One of the new scheme.
Future of our parks - parliamentary inquiry launched.
Our AGM - 21st September
Come along for a preview of the Sheffield Design Awards 2016 shortlist
Could you help our work by becoming a Trustee?
On Wednesday 21st September we are holding our 2016 Annual General Meeting. The AGM is at The Circle at 6.30pm and open to all. We'll have a report from our Chair, Simon Gedye, and elect Officers and Trustees for 2016/17.
At the AGM you'll hear a presentation about the full shortlist for the Sheffield Design Awards 2016.The awards are held every two years and celebrate design excellence in architecture and the built environment in and around Sheffield. Come along to hear a preview talk about the many worthy nominations which have now been shortlisted for these awards. These prestigious awards will be made during Sheffield Design Week on Wednesday 26th October 2016 at a ceremony to be held in the original postage hall of the Old Post Office, now beautifully restored for the use of Sheffield Hallam University.
Could you help our work by becoming a Trustee? The Civic Trust is run by a board of volunteer Trustees and we're always keen to find new trustees who share our aims and enthusiasm for encouraging greater awareness of the city's buildings, places and spaces. Our aims are to stimulate public interest in, and care for, the beauty, history and character of the city and its green spaces, and to champion high quality design of public buildings and public realm. We aim to reflect the views of the people of the city and create useful dialogue with the Council and decisions-makers, and influence decisions. To this end we organise the Sheffield Design Awards on a biennial basis, we develop and coordinate Sheffield Heritage Open Days and hold events to discuss important new developments in the city. If you'd like to get involved with our work then it would be great to hear from you and please do come along on the 21st. If you're interested in becoming a trustee and would like to have a chat about the role and what it entails please contact Simon Gedye, SCT Chair, at info@sheffieldcivictrust.org.uk
Vote for the People's Choice Award
At the Design Awards we will announce the winner of the People's Choice Award 2016. The award goes to your best new building or open space in Sheffield and is decided by a public vote.
Voting is now open. You can cast your vote and see the full shortlist by submitting your email address here.
Celebrating our city with another fantastic Heritage Open Days weekend
Last weekend saw Heritage Open Days 2016 take place - and it was a fantastic weekend! In Sheffield a record-breaking 85 events took place with more buildings being opened, more tours and more heritage talks than ever before.
The Civic Trust is proud to co-ordinate Sheffield Heritage Open Days and we're delighted that in recent years Sheffield's celebration of heritage has become one of the biggest in the UK. A huge thank you to all of the hardworking volunteers who made the events possible and to the thousands of people who visited Heritage Open Days events this year.
You can catch up on the weekend's events and see photos on Twitter at @sheffield_hods and on our Facebook page. If you attended events please share your photos with us, and if you have any feedback or suggestions for next year please email us at info@sheffieldcivictrust.org.uk or contact us on social media.
Sheffield Retail Quarter - read our views on Phase One of the new scheme
Last month the team developing the Sheffield Retail Quarter presented their outline proposals for the first phase of the new city centre development to the Trust. Phase One relates to the current site of the Grosvenor Hotel which will be replaced by a new office and shops development.
After the presentation our trustees discussed the scheme and submitted a formal Civic Trust response to the Council about the scheme. You can read our full response here.
Overall we welcomed the first phase of the city’s retail quarter - but we felt that the scheme needed to be improved to better benefit cyclists and pedestrians.
Since our response was submitted the Council has granted planning permission for the new scheme and HSBC have confirmed a 15-year deal to be the main tenant in the new block. Work is now underway to demolish the former hotel. As the plans for the rest of the Retail Quarter are developed over the coming months we will continue to engage with the scheme's designers and planners to share our views with them and seek to ensure that Sheffield city centre gets the best possible new retail quarter.
You can sign up for updates about the Retail Quarter plans and see details of the new scheme at https://twitter.com/SheffRQ
Future of Parks inquiry launched in Parliament
In Parliament the Communities and Local Government Select Committee has launched an inquiry into the future of public parks. The inquiry will examine the impact of reduced local authority budgets on our open spaces and has been set up to examine concerns that the existence of our public parks is under threat. The Committee of MPs is asking members of the public to help their inquiry by writing to them and sharing views on the issues and questions listed here.
Like so many Sheffielders we are proud of our parks and want to see them protected. We will be submitting a response to the inquiry and will share our response in next month's newsletter. We would encourage you to submit your views too and to share the information about the inquiry with people who might also be interested. The deadline to submit views and evidence to the inquiry is Friday September 30th and details about how to do this can be found here.
Would you like to join Sheffield Civic Trust? If you're passionate about Sheffield and want to help shape the debate about the buildings, places, spaces of our city then why not become a member? http://sheffieldcivictrust.org.uk/join/
