A GROUP which has fought to preserve and improve the appearance and character of Northallerton for more than 35 years has now been formally dissolved.

Allertonshire Civic Society has been disbanded after several decades of rigorously scrutinising planning applications affecting North Yorkshire’s county town and working to improve its appearance.

Chairman and secretary of the group, Mary Edwards, from Romanby, said she had taken the decision to stand down from the organisation in October.

She said they took the difficult decision to dissolve the group after being unable to fill vacancies on the committee. Despite moving the times and frequency of meetings, she said the society had grown “smaller and older” over the years.

In its lifespan, the civic society was involved in a huge array of projects in Northallerton, from litter-picking to tree planting, gardening projects or highlighting proposed developments they felt would harm the town’s attractiveness.

“If we see a new development or alternation to a building that has come up to our expectations or beyond, we complement them on what has been done, so sometimes we’re praising,” said Mrs Edwards.

“Over the years we have done our best to make sure that the town looks clean and tidy. In the early days there was a working party out cleaning litter and doing amateur gardening.

“We planted trees in a variety of places around the town, many of the trees up to Strikes Garden Centre have been planted by the civic society.”

The group has also been involved in other projects affecting the public life of the town, from campaigns to retain toilets in the town centre to campaigning against the introduction of parking charges.

Mrs Edwards said one of her favourite projects the society was involved in was a Pride in Our Town photographic contest run for local school pupils in 2010, which resulted in an exhibition in the town.

She said: “We wanted them to identify both the good and the bad aspects of the town and for the children to go out and take photographs of what they wanted to draw our attention to. It was a lovely memory for us and good for getting the children to take pride in their town.”

Communications officer for the group, John Edwards, said with a number of major proposals due to affect Northallerton in the future – from the redevelopment of the prison site to creation of the North Northallerton housing area – there were “exciting and challenging” times ahead for the town.