Transcript

Matthew

Well, the SPAB stakeholders are very complicated. We mean different things to lots of different people. So at the core of the society is its membership. These are people who feel strongly enough to sign up, to pay their annual subscription, and to be an active part of the SPAB.

Beyond that, though, many others would be considered stakeholders. There are local planning authorities who receive advice from us. There are the building professionals who are looking to us for information and help in many ways. And the general public who may come across us through something like National Maintenance Week, or just come here to our HQ at Spital Square to find out more about the organisation on an open day.

So we engage as far as we can with all these people, and try to provide them with the information they want. The society’s most important stakeholders are its members, both those who are enthusiasts, participate in the range of activities we put on, but also the professionals who come to us for the information and advice they need in their daily work. But beyond that, it’s vital that we’re providing information to local planning authorities who need our input very often in order to make suitable decisions on changes to listed buildings.

In the case of local planning authorities, the challenge of working with them is very much about persuading them that we have an expertise that will assist their decision making and democratic work. It’s all too easy to rely upon accounts of the decisions and views that may be perfectly important, but are not necessarily expertly based. So we bring to the system that kind of expertise. And it’s just a challenge to persuade people that we have something to contribute, it’s free advice, and it should be useful to the whole process.