User:ProCivitate
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Stephen is a Business Consultant based in Birmingham. He is a professional Member of the British Computer Society (the chartered institute for IT in the United Kingdom) and Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
His interests are wide and varied, but are largely focused on citizenship and the active pursuit of making a difference in the city. He tries to achieve this through membership of various organizations which include Board Member and Trustee of The Birmingham Civic Society, 2001-2022, for which he chaired the Planning Committee from 2001 to 2007. During this time he developed the Committee to a point where it is consulted by both the City Council and developers on planning matters, and its suggestions often implemented. It was Stephen who conceived and implemented the Civic Society's Renaissance Award in 2007. Stephen was also founder member and the first Chairman of Birmingham Trees for Life (2005-2007) which has planted over 100,000 trees in the city since 2005.
He has been a member of The Victorian Society since 1983 and has sat on the Executive Committee of the Birmingham and West Midlands branch since 2002, becoming Chairman in 2009.
As well as being active in these societies, Stephen sat on the Board of the Perrott's Folly Company (2003-2008). The company existed to ensure the preservation and promotion of the Georgian folly, situated in Edgbaston, which is said to have been the inspiration for one of Tolkien’s Two Towers. Ensuring the viability of the folly to help rejuvenate one of the more neglected parts of this suburb was key to the role of the PFC.
In addition to this, he has personally campaigned on a number of other concerns affecting the standard of living of Birmingham’s citizens. The most notable of these was the successful campaign against the introduction of bus lanes and the widening of Hagley Road. This also saved the King’s Head Public House (1904) and 76 Hagley Road (Early c.19, Grade II) from demolition, as well as hundreds of mature trees.
He revived the celebration of Trafalgar Day in the city in 2003 and has been Master of Ceremonies for the act of remembrance and parade since then.
From a heritage viewpoint, Stephen has chaired the Public Art Committee of the Civic Society (2002-2007 and 2012-2022) and successfully campaigned for the installation of the original railings around the statue to Lord Nelson in the Bull Ring; the restoration of the Joseph Sturge statue at Five Ways, Edgbaston (raising half of the money required, with the Sturge family) and the removal, restoration (to include new bronzes) and re-location of the Edward VII statue (Albert Toft, Grade II, 1913) to the city centre, in Centenary Square in 2010.
He is the 99th Churchwarden of the Parish of St Augustine of Hippo, Edgbaston and is a licensed Lay Minister.