ABOUT CIVIC VOICE

WHO ARE WE AND WHAT DO WE DO?

We are the national charity for the civic movement in England. We work with our local and regional member societies to engage and support communities in making places better together.

 

Our members undertake a diverse range of activities including managing heritage buildings, community engagement on planning decisions, transport, parks and open spaces, street design, blue plaques, tourism and much more.

 

We want to ensure that the built environment meets the real needs of a community, its families, individuals, its heritage, and the natural ecosystems on which society depends for survival.

 

As the national body for locally-led civic societies in England, Civic Voice seeks to support our members’ impact and growth, building local pride, promoting better design, protecting heritage, and growing community engagement and involvement, especially from under-represented sectors.

 

On behalf of its members, Civic Voice also seeks to engage decision-makers at regional and national level in pursuit of better places.

OUR STAFF

Meet the new staff team at Civic Voice and find more about us.

OUR BOARD

Find out who is on our board and what their backgrounds are.

EXPERT PANEL

Meet our Expert Panel and find out about their areas of expertise.

MEMBER SUPPORT

Information about what we offer our subscribing members

LATEST NEWS

Latest updates from Civic Voice and our members around England

GET IN TOUCH

Find our new contact details and ask us a question

OUR STAFF TEAM

ROB HATTERSLEY

Chief Executive Officer

Rob has been our CEO since February 2025. With a background in teaching as a deputy head, he has also worked for the emergency services in education and community engagement, and led a life skills charity.

He first volunteered in the civic movement 20 years ago and is excited to be working with the board on a new strategy for growth.

HAZEL SERKIS

Finance and Membership Officer

Hazel is our finance officer, helping to get the organisation fighting fit and working smoothly. She will be the primary port of call for membership subscriptions this year.

Hazel has many years experience providing secretarial, finance and business administration services to a wide range of organisations.

OUR BOARD TEAM

ROBERT OSBORNE

ANDREW JACKSON

MARTIN GUNSON

Trustee, Co-chair for internal matters

Trustee, Co-chair for external matters

Trustee, Treasurer

Robert is the Secretary of St Albans Civic Society. He has worked for membership organisations for nearly 40 years and has experience managing regional networks, as membership director of a medium size trade association, and as acting chief executive for a year.

He has been secretary to various Boards and committees. His roles include managing events ranging from seminars, conferences to awards presentations. He is currently the manager for two small trade associations. 

Andrew studied at Liverpool School of Architecture and the University of Liverpool’s Department of Civic Design and has a particular interest in urbanism.

He is Vice-Chair of Merseyside Civic Society. He is also a Trustee of both The Twentieth Century Society and Civic Voice now lives on the Wirral.

Martin is a chartered accountant and has been treasurer at Civic Voice since 2016. His term of office is drawing to a close and we are looking for a new treasurer. Find out more here.

ANDREW EVANS

BARRY GOODCHILD

MARTIN HAMILTON

Trustee

Trustee, Expert Panel Board Lead

Trustee

Andrew works in the culture and heritage sector as a partner at consultants Counterculture LLP providing fundraising, business planning, business development, and governance advice to a wide range of museums, galleries, libraries, faith groups and cultural and heritage organisations.

He also works with individuals on their charitable giving and serves as a non-executive chair, director, audit committee member and pension fund trustee for organisations in a range of sectors.

Andrew lives in North Wales and is a member of Chester Civic Society

Barry is Professor Emeritus in Housing and Urban Planning and trustee for Wakefield Civic Society.

Before retirement, whilst working at Sheffield Hallam University and its predecessors, Barry gained extensive experience at all levels of university teaching, including the direction of PhD’s.

Over his career, he secured the publication of five books, including one in French and over 50 articles in scientific journals. Has also advised the UK government and led research projects for the French government, the UK Economic and Social Research Council and the Scottish Government.

Martin is CEO of Leeds Civic Trust, a charity formed in 1965 which seeks to improve the city of Leeds, focusing in particular on planning and development, transport, heritage and history and public amenity.

Martin leads a team of 5 and the Trust supports around 100 volunteers who deliver much of the work of the organisation.

JANE MAGGS

Trustee, Regional Forum Board Lead

Jane become involved with her local civic society, Southgate District Civic Voice, in north London, over 20 years ago. Initially joining the Planning Group, she was Secretary for many years and is now Vice Chair.

Jane has been involved in a range of community engagement projects around local planning, development and the environment and recognised in 2021 by Planning Magazine as a ‘Woman of Influence’.  She represents SDCV on town centre regeneration, heritage and arts projects, often involving close collaboration with other groups, local administration and national bodies. 

With hands on experience of the practical problems and issues faced by civic societies, Jane became a member of the Civic Voice Regional Forum in 2017, widening that knowledge and ultimately leading her to join the Civic Voice Board.  She now leads the Regional Forum for Civic Voice.

JOIN OUR VOLUNTEER TEAM

Board vacancies at Civic Voice: could it be you?

After undertaking a skills audit, we are looking for new trustees/ non exec directors with specific skill sets and experience to help guide Civic Voice into a new phase. 

Visit Reach Volunteering to find out what we are looking for. If you think you might fit let us know, but equally, if you know someone who might, do pass the opportunity on to them.

Could you be our new Treasurer trustee?

We are recruiting a new Treasurer to help build resilient financial foundations at Civic Voice which enable us to work towards our vision. We'd love to hear from suitably qualified individuals.

Visit Reach Volunteering to find out more. If you think you might fit let us know, but equally, if you know someone who might, do pass the opportunity on to them.

VOLUNTEER BOARD MINUTES SECRETARY

Volunteer for a small but forward looking charity passionate about a better built environment. We're looking for a skilled and experienced volunteer minutes secretary for our board meetings.

Visit Reach Volunteering to find out what we are looking for. If you think you might fit let us know, but equally, if you know someone who might, do pass the opportunity on to them.

EXPERT PANEL

The Civic Voice Expert Panel is a volunteer group of professionals with expertise in key topics, enabling the charity to speak with authority and insight, and support member societies appropriately. The panel meets together at least quarterly, but more often it operates in working groups on specific issues as they arise.

The panel is approved by and reports to the Civic Voice board, with Barry Goodchild as the lead trustee. The panel is adminstered and supported by Chief Executive Rob Hattersley.

BRUCE BARNETT

Bruce worked as a planner in development management and policy making in five different councils in England before joining the Planning Inspectorate in 2002. He retired as a  senior planning inspector in 2015.

He is now on the committee of Retford Civic Society, taking the lead on planning matters.

TIM BROWN

Tim is vice-chair of the Coventry Society and a member of the committee focussing on housing and planning issues. He is a retired academic and ran a comparative housing research centre at De Montfort University for 15 years.

Tim is a corporate member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has been a non-executive director of three housing associations.

He is currently an associate of Housing Quality Network and undertakes occasional consultancy projects on social housing and homelessness as well as producing briefing papers on local government, housing policy and planning.

CELIA CLARK

Celia is a conservationist, writer, and academic with a deep interest in historic buildings and their sustainable futures. Her work began in response to urban redevelopment in Portsmouth, leading to the foundation of the Portsmouth Society and successful efforts to save several buildings.

She has extensive experience in building a  preservation trust, educational roles, including at Civic Voice's predecessor organisation Civic Trust, and research into dockyards, defense sites, and the environmental impact of the built environment.

Celia’s work includes publications, reports, and participation in EU heritage projects, all focused on reuse, retrofit, and achieving net carbon zero in construction.

MARGARET DALE

Margaret has been a community activitist in Holmfirth for a long time.  She has been involved in many charities and NHS Boards as a non-executive director and her working life has been in change management and employment matters.

Her involvement in local affairs led to participation in research projects on the future of town centres, a place on the High Streets Task Force Board and appointment as a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Place Management.  She is passionate about proper public participation in planning and attaining people’s involvement in decisions that affect the places they care about.

BARRY GOODCHILD

Barry is Professor Emeritus in Housing and Urban Planning and a trustee for Civic Voice as well as Wakefield Civic Society.

Before retirement, whilst working at Sheffield Hallam University and its predecessors, Barry gained extensive experience at all levels of university teaching, including the direction of PhD’s.

Over his career, he secured the publication of five books, including one in French and over 50 articles in scientific journals. Has also advised the UK government and led research projects for the French government, the UK Economic and Social Research Council and the Scottish Government.

MARGARET HOLLINS

Margaret is currently Chair of Epsom Civic Society and was a member of Civic Voice’s Board of Trustees from 2018-2024. She is a qualified but non practising solicitor (LLB, LLM).

Margaret lectured in law at NE Surrey College of Technology (1979-1992) and at London South Bank University (1992-2018) specialising in planning and environmental law. 

MICHAEL JUBB

TONY MICHAEL

Tony has recently retired from his own architecture and town planning practice, with a client range including councils, community groups and  individuals. 

Originally an architect in private practice, he moved into town planning, becoming deputy head of urban design in the City of London Planning Office, creating the plan for the financial district’s high building cluster.   He then moved on to Camden planning office as head of planning policy and urban design.

Tony is a member and former President of the Wimbledon Society planning committee and has sat on various heritage and design boards.  In 1984 he authored ‘Our Town, Our Plan’ for Wimbledon, and in 2018 the Society’s plan for Wimbledon town centre ‘Vision 2040’.

RICHARD MORRISH

Richard is a chartered landscape architect and has over 35 years experience of providing site analysis, planning and design services to public and private clients in the UK and overseas. He is also a qualified arboricultural consultant.

Richard has been a committee member of King’s Lynn Civic Society since 2011, providing written responses and local government liaison on a range of planning matters throughout that time.

TONY MULHALL

GILLIAN PAWSON

GEOFFREY PAYNE

Gillian qualified as an RTPI planner in 1973 after completing a planning degree at Nottingham University in 1972. Her first jobs were in local government; development control, development plan and environmental regulation. She then took a role as  research assistant at Manchester University Department of Planning; job sharing in local government and then in the voluntary sector. After a move to Northamptonshire she settled into planning consultancy; initially with a company of surveyors but in 2000 set up on her own, offering planning advice to the minerals and waste sectors, which evolved to include environmental permitting, growing to employ a team of 8 by the time that she retired in 2016.
 
Since a move to Evesham in 2018 she has volunteered with the Vale of Evesham Civic Society, and has been chair since 2021.

Geoffrey Payne is a housing and urban development consultant with five decades of experience covering all regions of the world.

After an academic career, he founded Geoffrey Payne and Associates (GPA) in 1995 and has undertaken research and consultancy assignments on housing policy, land management and property rights for the World Bank, UN and EU development agencies and academic institutions, published widely and contributed to numerousinternational conferences.

He is the co-author of the 2019 UN-Habitat report ‘The Role of Land in Achieving Adequate and Affordable Housing and his latest book is ‘Somewhere to Live: Rising
to the global urban land and housing challenge’ Practical Action Publishing, 2022. He is a
member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) International committee.

DANNY KAYE

CONTACT

Civic Voice

Nothe Fort

Barrack Road

Weymouth

Dorset

DT4 8UF

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Charity registration number in England & Wales: 1134476

Company number: 07142946

 

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