Vision for Richmond

The Council has engaged Hemingway Design for Phase 2 of the “Vision for Richmond” project.

In summary, the ideas are based around three place shaping pillars which will guide Council actions for the next 5, 10 and 15+ years:

  1. Global City Energy Meets Market Town Charm;
  2. Space to Breathe: Escapism, Exploration & Enrichment;
  3. Natural Leaders: Champions of Environmental Action & Social Value.

According to Hemingway: “Each pillar is supported by a set of shared values and common goals that give substance to the theme by shaping behaviour and aligning decision-making”.  The Council has summarised the three pillars in their Bulletin of February 3, 2025 (read extract)

An Implementation Group will be coordinated by Senior Council Officers from across the services and guided by a Sponsor Board that includes Ward Councillors. Cllr Chris Varley will represent South Richmond.

Ideas mentioned for consideration are better cultural/evening offers that are affordable for families and an enhanced leisure provision for young people with play and active spaces. The Society supports this and proposals to intensify the night time use of the Old Town Hall and other Council buildings as we suggested in our response to the Night Time Strategy consultation.

Engagement with residents, community groups, the Youth Council and schools is planned, but there are no details beyond trying to test the vision at events/activities over the summer. The Society has suggested the May Fair could provide a good opportunity to meet a wide range of people and visitors in an easy and relaxed way.

The future of Richmond, attracting investment and preserving its great heritage underlies the Society’s raison d’etre and we want members and all those who care about our town to have an opportunity to contribute. We plan to devote our Autumn Forum on September 18th to this purpose and have invited key Councillors and officers working on this project to participate.

More: Hemingway Design’s full presentation

Cyber Fraud Prevention

In 2024 the average loss by Richmond residents who experienced cyber fraud exceeded £9,000.  Get more details from the Police report with examples of fraudulent crimes and valuable information on how to avoid being scammed here.

 

Notice of the 2024 AGM and Agenda of The Richmond Society

AGENDA for the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING THURSDAY 12 DECEMBER 2024 at 7:30 pm at Richmond & Hillcroft Adult Community College, Parkshot, Richmond TW9 2RE

 Introduction and review of the Society’s work during the year

  1. To note the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of 14 December 2023
  2. Ordinary Resolutions
    • To receive the Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 30 September 2024 available here
    • To elect the Chair, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer (Note A)
    • To elect or re-elect other Trustees (Note B)
    • To appoint the Independent Examiner (Note C)
  3. Any other business

 NOTES

A Nominations are invited for the positions of Chair, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer and other Trustees. These must be submitted in writing to the Secretary, The Richmond Society, 13 Fitzwilliam Avenue TW9 2RD or by email to the Secretary. Candidates for election must be Society members who are willing to serve, and must be proposed and seconded by Society members.

B (i) The following being eligible offer themselves for election:

Andrew Coleman as Honorary Treasurer;

Barbara Allen as Honorary Secretary.

(ii) Ian Galbraith, having been co-opted, retires and being eligible offers himself for election;

(iii) The Society has six trustees other than the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, one third of whom excluding trustees co-opted during the year (rounded up to a whole number) must retire in accordance with the Constitution. In accordance with best practice, all six, having been proposed and seconded, offer themselves for re-election:

  • Ginny Curry
  • Lizzie Danckwerts
  • Pamela Fleming
  • Louise Fluker
  • Stephen Speak
  • Nicky Wood.

(iv) In addition the following member, having been duly proposed and seconded, offer themselves for election

  • Brigitte Clausen

C Marian Williams has acted as our Independent Examiner for two years and is willing to be reappointed.

Yours sincerely

Louise Fluker

Acting Chair

General Election Hustings, June 2024

Hustings for the 2024 General Election organised by The Richmond Society took place on Monday 24 June at Duke Street Church, Richmond and simultaneously on Zoom.

After opening statements from each candidate they responded firstly to pre-submitted questions and then to questions from the audience before giving their closing statements.

A video of the entire event is available on YouTube.

Hustings Panel

 

The published list of candidates for the Richmond Park constituency:

CORYTON, Laura (Labour Party)
FRENCH, Chris (The Mitre TW9)
GEZDARI, Sara (Conservative Party)
HARRISON, Richard (Social Democratic Party)
HEARN, Michael (Reform UK)
OLNEY, Sarah (Liberal Democrats)
WARLOW, Chas (Green)

Obituary Barry May

Barry May, Chairman of The Richmond Society from 2018 to 2023, died on June 1, 2024 at the age of 80 after a valiant fight with cancer.

He was passionate about preserving and enhancing everything that contributes to the special character of Richmond and felt honoured to lead the Society during five years of change. The Society was re-invigorated with new Trustees, new Patrons and new ideas.

Barry May

His other local interests included the Museum of Richmond where he was a Trustee, and Richmond Local History Society.

Born in Strawberry Hill, May was a lifelong resident of the borough in between assignments as a Reuters foreign correspondent to Beirut, Dubai where he was Gulf bureau chief, Johannesburg, Karachi, New York, Rawalpindi, Tehran and Washington where he covered The White House, State Department, Congress, Pentagon and US Supreme Court during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, whose attempted assassination in 1981 he reported. In London he was Reuters parliamentary lobby correspondent with a front row seat in the House of Commons press gallery during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher.

An early claim to fame came at the age of 19 when, as a reporter on The Richmond & Twickenham Times, May wrote the first published article about the Rolling Stones, an emerging rhythm ’n’ blues band who played a Sunday night gig at the Crawdaddy Club in the Station Hotel, Richmond, in 1963.

The son of a pianist, he had been writing an occasional jazz column in the weekly newspaper and went to see who was drawing the crowds.

The review brought the band to the attention of London’s thriving music scene and helped to propel them to global acclaim.

The Stones rolled on, and so did May’s life in journalism.

Patron, Trustee and other changes

We are very sorry that Lord Hendy has decided to resign as a Patron. He is, amongst other roles, Chair of Network Rail and does not wish to be constrained by possible conflicts of views. We are grateful for his support and the work he has led to revamp Richmond Station.

Ian Galbraith has joined as a trustee. He is a Chartered Surveyor and currently Group Executive Board Director of Mott MacDonald, a 20,000 strong employee-0wned engineering and professional services consultancy in charge of strategy. He has lived in Richmond since 2021.

We are very grateful to volunteers Richard Baldwin who is our Membership Database manager, Patrick Gillen who has taken over as Webmaster and Sofia Gammelgard who is helping streamline office processes. They should reduce the burden on Neil Maybin who generously continued to run all these functions and provide IT admin support after stepping down as a trustee. They join Shimei Zhou who looks after our social media.

Committee – update following the AGM on 14 December 2023

The Committee has changed since the AGM. Barry May and Anne Koutabeloulis decided not to stand for re-election and there were no candidates for election as Chair and Secretary respectively.

These posts remain vacant and for the time being Louise Fluker, vice chair, will be the Acting Chair. The Secretary’s activities will be picked up by other members of the Committee.

The officers and members of the committee, who are also trustees of The Richmond Society, are now:

Chairman (vacant)
Vice-Chair & Planning Louise Fluker
Hon Secretary (vacant)
Hon Treasurer Andrew Coleman

 

 
Events Lizzie Danckwerts
Infrastructure & Environment Stephen Speak
Pamela Fleming
Landscaping & Riverside Nicky Wood
Membership Ginny Curry

Notice of Annual General Meeting 2023

 

AGENDA for the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING THURSDAY 14 DECEMBER 2023 at 7:30 pm at Richmond & Hillcroft Adult Community College, Parkshot, Richmond TW9 2RE

 

Introduction and review of the Society’s work during the year

1. To note the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of 15 December 2022

2. Ordinary Resolutions

   

2.1

To receive the Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 30 September 2023, which can be read at https://richmondsociety.org.uk/annualreport2023

   

2.2

To elect the Chairman, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer (Note A)

   

2.3

To elect or re-elect other Trustees (Note B)

   

2.4

To appoint the Independent Examiner (Note C)

3. Any other business

 

Notes

A. 

Nominations are invited for the positions of Chairman, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer and other Trustees. These must be submitted in writing to the Secretary, The Richmond Society, The Bridge Workspace, 7B Parkshot TW9 2RD or by email to the Secretary. Candidates for election must be Society members who are willing to serve, and must be proposed and seconded by Society members.

B. 

The following being eligible offer themselves for election:
      –   Andrew Coleman as Honorary Treasurer.

C. 

The Society has six trustees other than the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, one third of whom excluding trustees co-opted during the year (rounded up to a whole number) must retire in accordance with the Constitution. In accordance with best practice all six, having been proposed and seconded, offer themselves for re-election:
      –   Ginny Curry
      –   Lizzie Danckwerts
      –   Pamela Fleming
      –   Louise Fluker
      –   Stephen Speak
      –   Nicky Wood

D. 

Marian Williams has acted as our Independent Examiner for two years and is willing to be reappointed.