Dundee Civic Trust members are celebrating the group’s 50th anniversary.
Members, supporters and friends of the city regeneration charity gathered in the City Chambers at the invitation of the Lord Provost Bill Campbell for a civic reception on Tuesday.
The event came as Dundee SNP MP Chris Law tabled a House of Commons motion congratulating the trust on its work.
Dundee Civic Trust (DCT) is a voluntary body and charitable trust that aims to encourage the good design in new buildings and regeneration projects.
Its members also work to spark the public’s imagination around the city’s urban heritage.
1960s demolition derby
DCT chairman Donald Gordon thanked the Lord Provost for the invitation to City Chambers.
He said: “Dundee Civic Trust was set up in 1973 after the demolition derby of the 1960s in the city centre to try to conserve and regenerate the best of the city’s built environment and heritage, as well as ensuring the highest design standards in new buildings”.
He said the trust now has more than 200 members.
“We set out to influence planners, developers, architects and owners to follow the best examples in buildings. We have useful discussions with many local groups and organisations, and have built up a very good working relationship with many of them.”
He said the group champions building homes on previously developed land where possible.
“We try to ensure that new buildings will have an attractive form and a useful function with proper insulation and environmental considerations, rather than being built to the lowest price, as happens too often.
“Houses should also, where possible, be built in former brownfield sites, rather than in fields in the country, a practice which is detrimental to our communities and the environment.”
Dundee MP proposes Westminster thanks for city work
Mr Law wrote to the group to congratulate them on their anniversary.
He said in his letter: “I know that the work that you do is appreciated not only by myself, but by so many across the city.
“The trust have done so much over the last fifty years to not only protect but improve our city’s built environment, and you should all be incredibly proud of that work.”
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