Beginnings

From the Beginning by Mary Richards

It began stormily during the blizzard of December 1990, when Radio Shropshire's anchorman asked about power cuts 'in residential districts, not the town centre'. Didn't they know there are residents in Shrewsbury town centre? No: 'We thought it was all offices here,' utility workers replied to complaints about their Sunday dawn chorus of drills and loud music. What we needed was a voice.

I was on the Civic Society's Council of Management, where I learnt that SABC had rejected the proposal of a town centre parish council because it was not needed. Whomever they had consulted, it wasn't the residents themselves. I asked hundreds of them over the ensuing months, noting issues of concern and possible supporters.

Malcolm Kimber, Director of the Community Council of Shropshire, advised me about setting up an organisation, and later provided a draft constitution. His work was officially with rural communities, but his expertise was invaluable. I stressed to all potential members that a residents' association must be spontaneous and independent, not Council-led. We would approach our ward Councillors only when it was clear that the association was viable.

Following Malcolm's suggestion, Alan Shrank and I devised a questionnaire which was duplicated gratis by a friend. I bought a copy of the electoral roll for the ward section that covered exactly our area, defined by river loop and railway bridge. This was the best work of imaginative fiction available for £2.50: people listed thereon had long since moved, some beyond the reach of any council tax demands. Others lived in unrecorded flats, probably because they didn't mind not voting but did mind paying rates; one young neighbour backed away nervously when I asked him to join us.

My husband, John, and I delivered this questionnaire to every home in the summer of 1991, and received 112 responses representing 190 individuals, enough, out of the "forgotten thousand", to start an association. Some responses were entertaining: 'Not if it's political'; 'Not if it's social'; 'Not if it clashes with my woodworking class'; 'Not if X is involved'.

Word got around, and a representative of another association called, but I wanted no truck with any single issue group: we were to be a two-way conduit for information, not a campaign. I consulted some residents' associations, and a friend who was longstanding chairman of a parish council. I was furiously, almost physically, attacked by one of our Councillors for going it alone.

I researched meeting rooms and chose the Methodists' hall, pleasant and cheap. We had no funds yet, and were determined to keep membership fees affordable. I was anxious to include everyone, particularly housing association tenants. For committee meetings Malcolm offered us the CCS offices, their formal neutrality preferable to private sitting rooms. He, Joan Fidler and I addressed a hundred people at our inaugural meeting on 3 October 1991. Our first fully constituted public meeting some three months later heard the police Superintendent, Mike Smith; John and I used to enjoy entertaining the speakers to supper beforehand.

As planning chairman of Shrewsbury Civic Society I had useful access to Council officers (as well as some insight into local government and planning procedures), and continued this work on behalf of the Association. We were now consulted on planning issues and our opinions heard.

We had to repel boarders from outside the river loop, foreigners keen to join our lively group. Some of these ran big businesses whose interests might conflict with our own and jeopardise our independence, though we established friendly relations with other amenity groups and the authorities. I am happy to see both our liveliness and our independence continue.