Leicester has often been recognised as a place of innovation and non-conformist attitudes. It was in this vein that Leicester saw the election of Sir Peter Soulsby as the first directly elected mayor of Leicester in 2011.

Taking on an executive role with responsibility for strategic leadership of the city including its economic and commercial development, a new political chapter began in the life of the city. Leicester’s new vision included an Economic Action Plan for 2012-2020 and a new approach to regeneration which envisaged heritage featuring as a catalyst for growing the economy and creating an attractive place to live, work, and visit.

A belief that the old and the new can and should co-exist to make an attractive and sustainable city has resulted in strategies to deliver on health and wellbeing and transport and tourism. The Heritage Partnership was also established in 2011 promote the preservation, creative use and interpretation of the city’s historic built environment.

Leicester Civic Society is pleased to be an active member of the Heritage Partnership.  Planning and development are always of interest to the Civic Society and its members and we will be watching carefully the progress of the emerging planning policy as Leicester sets out its revised local plan for the next 15 years.

Leicester Civic Society will continue to champion imaginative development and challenge inappropriate planning applications.

We have comprehensively surveyed the city and identified 16 potential new conservation areas or updates to existing areas.

We continually monitor and highlight Leicester’s ‘Heritage at Risk’. Our approach to regeneration is heritage-driven and innovative; we seek to combine the best of the past with designs, architecture and technologies which aspire to be the best of the future.