The report starts with the following text....
1. The Norwich Lanes
Norwich Lanes is an extensive area running from St Benedicts to StGiles and London Street on a N/S axis, and from Ten Bells Lane to St Andrews Hill on a W/E axis. Boundaries can be fluid depending on either the City Council boundary plan or ‘The Lanes’ Traders Association. For the purposes of this survey the Norwich Lanes Publicity leaflet has been used. The area, which in recent years has been developed and improved with tourist, shopper and local business interests in mind, is historically and commercially interesting with more independent shops and small cafes opening up, and a good mix of cultural activities. The more recently refurbished area St Gregory’s Green - is an attractive addition to the area. It is appreciated that regeneration is on-going in this area, and the comments below reflect the situation in early September 2009.
Lighting
Because of the way Norwich Lanes has developed, the area has no uniform lighting design. Lighting is mainly building-mounted, utilitarian and functional, in a variety of designs but predominantly the round globes found elsewhere in the city. The few exceptions are to be found in the form of traditional
lantern-type lamps, free standing and wall-mounted, in eg St Lawrence Little Steps. When finance permits, perhaps the latter form of lighting could be introduced into a few selected areas, eg Lower Goat Lane, St Gregory’s Green/Pottergate. FULL REPORT...
As with so many other treasures, Norwich doesn’t realise or value what it has. The Norwich Society’s 2008 Environmental Audit has highlighted the fact that Norwich has one of the largest and best collections of civic public parks in the country but they are under used. There are so many facilities for sports and games of all kinds: should the City Council do more to encourage people to use the parks?
- Almost without exception our audit found the maintenance of the parks was excellent; great credit must go to the City Care team who carry out this task. Surely some of our parks would qualify for the Green Flag Award for Parks.
- There were a few areas of concern. In 2005 this committee drew attention to the disgraceful state of the Castle Mound, and below the Mound, the unacceptably neglected Castle Gardens. This is an historic site in the centre of the City and a key tourist area. Remedial action has been agreed but has yet to begin.
- The other park which we felt fell below standard was Mile Cross. A local ‘Friends’ group is doing great work against difficult odds and would like to see it restored to the standard of the other historic parks.
- There are attendants in some of the parks some of the time but vandalism remains a problem. It would seem that the presence of authority and involvement of the local community does make a big difference to the way the park is treated.
- There is a lack of signage to direct to some of the more suburban parks which were often difficult to find. Toilets were just about adequate though those at Mousehold were in a poor state.
- The restored pavilion at Waterloo Park was shuttered and apparently had little if any use.
They sit and read on it; eat their hamburgers on it; meet their friends and chat on it; let their children climb and play on it; some just sit and watch, others contemplate its meaning. Certainly to judge from its use, Norwich’s latest piece of public art, Anne and Patrick Poirier’s assemblage of forms on Hay Hill is a resounding success: sculpture that is useful, good to touch and to look at and also intrigues. This new work is directly allied to the statue of Sir Thomas Browne, but this, with Barbara Hepworth’s Sea Form in the Castle gardens, is one of the few sculptures in the city in a public place. The Norwich Society’s recent publication ‘Public Sculpture in central Norwich’ highlights the diversity of sculpture in the city in form and period. But it also highlights the paucity of sculpture as a whole, in particular sited in key public places. Where it does exist it is often part of the decoration of a building, (e.g. the City Hall lions, Prospect House ‘Untitled’ by Bernard Meadows). While these are excellent and contribute to the street scene, the numbers of free standing public works are few. 
This new report emphasizes what an important but understated asset the river is for Norwich – a river sequence that is emerging now from a fundamental change in patterns of use. This is expressed most vividly in rebuilding over the last decade and in developments now in progress.
Prince of Wales Road and Riverside in the small hours have been described as “The most dangerous streets in Norfolk”, but our inspections late on Friday and Saturday nights failed to confirm this. We found police and private security teams clearly in control, allowing large numbers of mainly young people to enjoy themselves.
This is not the whole truth of course. There is far too much drunken violence like the attack on a beggar at Thorpe Station in April. There were four separate drunken brawls in the Norwich area, three of them within the NTE, on the Saturday night we were with the police. Local residents suffer rubbish, noise and public urination, and the new Act has resulted in longer opening hours, particularly for pubs, which are now competing more vigorously for custom with the night clubs which have monopolised the city’s post-midnight drinks trade until now.
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The Norwich Society has approached HEART (Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust) and suggested a combined campaign to move forward the development of the Norwich river front. HEART has responded very positively and the River is to be added to their 'String of Pearls': the very best Norwich has to offer. The Riverside Walk from New Mills
down to the Boom Towers at Carrow Bridge presents a string of success and opportunity. The Walk, many years in the making, is still incomplete. The Group aims to encourage its completion by practical suggestions and by bringing together all interested groups. This really could be one of the City's finest public and tourist attractions, linking together so many of its major historic buildings besides being a beautiful environment in its own right.
Alec Hartley
Our theme in this year’s Annual Review is Outreach – one of those clumsy but surprisingly useful new words so beloved of the bureaucrat. But we’re in a changing world and might as well use the terms to match.
As my colleagues on the Planning Advisory and Strategic Planning and Transport Committees will wearily acknowledge, many of these new words as used by planners in so-called ‘consultations’ are designed to obfuscate, to give the impression of a pseudo-science which gives apparent added value to their pronouncements and baffles the lay consultee.
In this case, however, I believe the term to be a just one. In 2009 the Norwich Society did indeed reach out to other concerned groups seeking to conserve and improve our City, to local government and to the wider public. The pace and volume of work has quickened, sometimes to a point where Vicky Manthorpe, our invaluable and indispensable Administrator, and I have sometimes felt in danger of over-reaching our Outreach – if you see what I mean.
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Section 106 contributions are used to pay for improvements to the social infrastructure, surrounding new buildings and developments. These can include paying for an agreed percentage of affordable housing within a development, new roads, schools, health facilities and other benefits to the public realm. Many councils, unlike Norwich, choose as an act of policy to extend the use of Section 106 to make developers use a very small portion (usually less than 1%) of construction costs to pay for public art.
The Norwich Society is strongly in favour of the constructive use of Section 106 to improve as much of the City’s social infrastructure as possible. But the City Council’s consultation also enables us to comment on what we consider to be a major omission in the Planning Department’s standard list of possible requirements – that of Public Art. Norwich is failing to use a planning tool which could mightily enhance our cityscape, making it more attractive to citizens, tourists and outside investors drawn by the quality of life in our community.
The Environment Committee’s Audit for 2007 has broken with the Society’s tradition of looking at geographical areas of the City and instead taken on a single issue: the preservation of historic views. Many such views are being lost by planting, planning and building decisions which take no account of them.
This report is not just about the classic views from outside – the traditional prospects - but also about the vistas along our streets, and the rooflines that define our horizons.
The glimpses we catch of historic buildings as we walk through the City are necessary for our continuing appreciation of our heritage: a good view can raise the spirit, emphasize landmarks, and identify location. Clutter and careless development can destroy our whole perception of a place.
The report looks at the best and the worst from 2007.
This year, the short list for the Norwich Society Design Awards for new buildings saw an emphasis on developments that mesh with historic buildings. There is a particular art to building in or alongside notable structures and allowing the existing style to echo through new contemporary design. The Norwich Society is championing buildings that not only retain our heritage, but also give a distinctly twenty-first century message to the future.
The Society welcomed as their advisor and guest speaker Mr Kenneth Powell, distinguished architectural critic and former Chairman of the Twentieth Century Society.
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This audit was carried out on October 13th 2006 by
the members of the Environment Committee:
It must be emphasised that this is an important part of the city, both historically and potentially. The great strength is the mix of medieval houses, Victorian terraces and modern developments, many based on the traditional system of courtyards and closes. Alongside these are the small specialist shops and businesses so essential for the vitality of the community. These must be retained alongside new housing which should continue the pattern of small intimate communities in traffic free zones.
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This report introduces Jeremy Taylor, the new Chairman of the Norwich Society plus other business as defined by the agenda below
1. Welcome to the President by the Chairman, Mrs Janet King
2. Apologies
3. Minutes of the 2005 AGM circulated prior to the meeting
4. Chairman’s address. Mrs Janet King
5. Treasurer’s Statement, Mr Nick Cooper
6. Elections of Officers and to the Executive Committee
7. Administrator’s address: Programme for 2006-7
8 . Any Other Business
9. Thanks to the Lord Mayor by the Vice Chairman,
10.
Dr Jeremy Taylor
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