Ecclesiastical and Atlantic Gateway Parklands join consortium backing our ‘Right to Beauty’ project

1^st April 2015

We are delighted to announce that two further organisations have joined the group of partners working with ResPublica to take forward our unique programme of activity on beauty and its contribution to social prosperity. Ecclesiastical, the heritage and church insurer, and Atlantic Gateway Parklands, the project to make places investable and liveable through an exceptional environment within the Atlantic Gateway region, join the National Trust, Woodland Trust, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Civic Voice and Hastoe Housing Association.

The concept of beauty is at present undervalued by politicians, yet it represents a powerful tool in the realisation of a wide range of benefits in fields from community placemaking to public health. Our project will therefore aim to reintroduce ideas of beauty into public policy discourse and the practice of government across departments, as well as integrating beauty into local community experience and reclaiming it as a mainstream value accessible to all.

Clare Pardy, Fine Art and Heritage Director at Ecclesiastical, said: “There is a great deal of sympathy in our respective organisations for the view that heritage is a key component of the fabric of our society.  As an insurer, we play a practical role in the preservation of our heritage, but we also feel that it is essential to play a part in raising national awareness of exactly why our heritage should be preserved. It was an honour to be approached by ResPublica and we are delighted to be part of an initiative that seeks to help shape government thinking on this issue.”

Richard Tracey, Interim Project Director at Atlantic Gateway Parklands, said: “The Atlantic Gateway Parklands centres on the concept that nature can support growth as an opportunity and not a constraint. We are aiming to create a new dimension across the Mersey belt of ‘planned landscapes and creative environments’ – our Parklands PLACEs. In this way we believe that we can harness beauty as a competitive advantage in our pursuit of sustainable development, and we are pleased to be involved with a project which aims to promote a similar understanding of beauty and its uses to a wider audience.”

The project outputs will consist of a public opinion poll and full policy paper, to be published shortly following the General Election. We are still seeking additional partners to join us in support of this work, including developers, architects, housing associations, cultural outlets and those with a keen interest and expertise in the planning process.

In addition, we are also seeking a research associate to work with us on the policy paper. Full details of this position can be found on our website. Please contact our Head of Policy Programmes, Caroline Julian, at caroline.julian@respublica.org.uk or on 020 3542 8140, for further information about either of these opportunities.

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