Retiring Chair of Conwy Branch CPRW - Joyce Hughes

Written by Joyce Hughes

Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.

I cannot say that becoming Chair was exactly thrust upon me – it was more a slightly subtle move by our previous chairman John Howard.  We used to have monthly meetings with a buffet followed by a speaker.  John, as Chair, greeted the speaker and collected the money.  When he asked if I would help by collecting the money I happily agreed.  The following month I again collected the money and then John smiled at me and said “I suppose you’re the Treasurer now!”  Following John’s  retirement I became Chair.

My eleven years as Chair have been very happy and busy years.  As mentioned we had monthly meetings with a buffet and many interesting and informative speakers.  We enjoyed sumnmer visits and Christmas lunches as well as special lunches to celebrate the Queen’s 90^th birthday and other memorable events  At that time we had over 10 nonagenarians. 

I wouldn’t like you to think that all our time was spent wining and dining. We spent a great deal of time studying planning applications and passing on our comments to Conwy and the National Park Authority.

Sadly, following covid, our membership fell and we were unable to attract younger members.  Our committee members were all from the coastal strip and we failed to attract members from the farming community which was always a weakness of the group. We desperately need new members and fresh ideas to move the branch forward.

There are many issues for CPRW to continue fighting for and it is good to see some branches growing stronger.

There is a push for renewable energy to reduce CO2 and costs as well as security of supplies.  I don’t believe the answer for Wales is to destroy the landscape with turbines and pylons.  Salaries in Wales are lower than the UK average and the housing stock is older therefore it makes sense to have a huge programme of home insulation. This would reduce bills as well as CO2. Local colleges could train students in home insulation, thereby creating local employment. There could be means tested grants or low interest loans.

I am happy to remain on the committee and we plan a summer visit but currently we do not have a chair.

I would like to record my thanks to all the committee members who have been such a pleasure to work with and special mention to Innes our secretary who for 12 years has worked so hard to organise our meetings.