A new national charity was launched at the weekend called Civic Voice. It calls itself the ‘national charity for the civic movement’ and its mission is to make places more attractive, enjoyable and distinctive. Civic Voice’s ambitions and activities do not reflect its size: despite being a small organisation, they have an ambitious remit, from lobbying Government, carrying out research and local campaigning with volunteers, to speaking out in the media. One of their current campaigns, Love Local, aims to uncover the ‘DNA of different places’ by asking people to send in photos of what makes them proud of their local area – to be shown in a constantly updated digital mosaic.

They certainly look like an interesting charity, and I’ll be keeping an eye on their movements and progress in the coming months.