Just what does the Broadstairs Society actually do?

It is the sort of question most people ask about almost any organisation. Just what does the Council do? Just what does a Councillor do? Just what does the Government do?  Just what does the Queen do?

The answer is usually that it, or they, do far more than you realise. I have been a member of the Broadstairs Society for nigh on ten years now and I can recall an article I saw where the Society was referred to as a “moribund Society”.  I could not be bothered to respond at the time but it occurred to me that it needs to be dispelled.

The Society exists to be custodians of the heritage in Broadstairs and St. Peter’s. It is the Society’s duty to protect and preserve the area’s inheritance so that it may be said by future generations that the Society were worthy trustees. I know it sounds lofty and a tad moralistic but the intent is a worthy one.

So, how does it go about being custodians of the heritage? Well, there is a dedicated Executive Committee that ensures its members are happy to pay subscriptions by producing a quarterly Newsletter of topics of interest to our members by organising monthly open evenings where speakers come to talk on topics of interest ranging from historical events or figures to more general issues.  Now that Covid is less of an issue, the Society will be planning social events to places of interest in and around the area.

Every week the District Council publishes a planning applications list that is scrutinised by our Planning Secretary and comments made on any planning applications that may adversely affect the character of the area. That means each and every planning application needs to be investigated every week. We are on the third Planning Secretary in the ten years I have been a member!

The Society also has links with the Town on the Neighbourhood Plan as it is on the Sub Committee overseeing its development.  The link not only means sitting around a table and discussing issues (which it does) but also getting together a team of volunteers to undertake an audit of the five Areas of High Townscape Value. The team worked tirelessly for months and produced individual audits that were overseen by Historic England and, once approved, were then fed into the new Design Code.  A new Neighbourhood Plan (which includes the new Design Code) has been out for consultation and the Sub Committee are due to consider the results of the consultation exercise in June 2022.

The Society is a member of the Council for the Protection of Rural England both at District and County level. Covid has put paid to a number of meetings but we were able, nonetheless, to comment of the District Council’s new draft Local Plan (and we were not that complimentary).

I do not call that a moribund Society. Do you?

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