Peebles Civic Society

PROGRAMME OF PUBLIC MEETINGS

2011 – 2012

Article for Peeblesshire News

Peebles Civic Society

Peebles Civic Society held a successful public meeting recently when Laurence Parkerson of Historic Scotland gave a talk on the “Process of Listing Buildings in Scotland”.

Peebles Civic Society Chairman, Ronald Ireland, welcomed all to the meeting and introduced the speaker.

Laurence Parkerson started his talk by giving information on the statutory role of Historic Scotland and of his own part in being a member of the Listing and Designed Landscape Team. He informed his audience of many interesting facts. There are 47650 Listed Buildings in Scotland, 8000 Ancient Monuments, 630 Conservation Areas and 386 Gardens, all under the umbrella of Historic Scotland.

He then moved on to the process of identifying buildings and structures which are of special architectural interest and indicated that there are 171 listed buildings in Peebles Burgh and Parish, 96 of which were added as recently as 1995.

Mr Parkerson gave examples of buildings in the categories A, B and C and spoke of the criteria used in relation to age, rarity, material, type, plan form and interior design in classifying buildings.

Finally he spoke of the principles of listing and the listing process from consultation to completion.

In rounding off his presentation Mr Parkerson answered a wide variety of interesting questions raised by the audience.

Gerard Bakker, Peebles Civic Society Secretary, thanked Laurence Parkerson for his presentation and in doing so praised the work of Historic Scotland.

The next public meeting of Peebles Civic Society will take place on Tuesday 27 March at 7.30pm in St. Andrews Leckie Church Hall when Carol Cooke of Scottish Borders Council Planning Department will give a talk on “SBC Design Guides” which will include “Making Places” and “Guidance on Road Design in Housing Layouts”.

Peebles Civic Society held its first public meeting of the winter programme on 29 November 2011 in St. Andrew’s Leckie Church Hall when an “Open Forum” was arranged prior to the annual general meeting of the Society.

The Chairman, Ronald Ireland, welcomed all to the meeting and introduced the speakers and the subject matter of their talks.

Firstly, committee member Sam Coe gave an illustrated talk on “Solar Panels” covering various aspects of interest and concern on this very topical subject.

He included information on types and styles of solar panels, the planning controls as set out in the 2008 Government paper, the legislation and guidance over listed buildings and houses in conservation areas and rounded off his talk by answering various questions and comments from his audience.

Secondly, Society Secretary Gerard Bakker, delivered an up-date on SESplan covering the strategic development plan areas on aspects of transport, the increase in housing and the future pressures as the plan goes through its phased timings. The talk raised several queries which covered the likely population increase and the Society’s audit on housing numbers.

Lastly, Society Chairman Ronald Ireland reminded all about the earlier consultation by S.B.C. on the subject of a second bridge for Peebles and spoke of the Society’s view that decisions on a second bridge should only be part of a whole town plan for Peebles. He spoke of the forthcoming STAG2 report which should be available in March 2012 and of the ongoing part that Peebles Civic Society will play in bringing the matter to the attention of the people of Peebles. The personal views of many people were expressed and these will be noted when the next phase of the consultation is reached.

There followed the Annual General Meeting of the Society which included reports by the Chairman, the Secretary and the Treasurer on the past year’s work of the Society.

In the election of Office Bearers the following were elected to serve for the year ahead.

Chairman – Ronald Ireland,     Vice- Chairman – Alistair Robertson,

Secretary – Gerard Bakker,      Treasurer – Graeme Murray,

Committee Members – Andrew Davey, Sam Coe, John Moore, Tom Swanston and Stephen Scott.

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