Pride comes before CSR WHAT'S ON
Those only familiar with the modern-day Gloucester and its ongoing regeneration will be unaware of the historic city as it was, a decade and more past. When Nigel Tillott first came to the county for a job, he was surprised, irked, and then downright annoyed by a question which kept surfacing. Now a director, head of employment law and head of the Gloucester office of one of the county’s biggest law firms, Davies and Partners, he cannot get away from how he felt back then. It solidified an attitude towards Gloucester that remains to this day. “I first came to the city in 1989. The root of my anger, frustration and pride goes back to then. “There was a really negative vibe about things. I was always being asked ‘why come to Gloucester – you must be mad?’. “I almost could not believe the question. I thought ‘how can you not be proud of your city?’. Even through the 1980s the Cathedral was still beautiful.The city was just beginning to think about the Docks. The surrounding countryside is incredible. “I thought, ‘come on, be proud of it’. I was. And that has been with me throughout.” He has done what a good therapist might have told him to do – turn the emotion into a positive. They should probably have also added another old line - ‘no one said
it was going to be easy’. Mr Tillott had sat down with Punchline to talk about corporate social responsibility, with the Gloucester 10k in mind. Davies and Partners has led the event for six years now. It became clear he feels CSR should come from the individual and be driven by them, with the company stepping up to support - and not be dictated from above as policy. “My attitude has always been, I am not going to ask you to do something I would not do myself,” he said. Which helps explain how he became the current incumbent of the now popular running event. “It all started just over six years ago. The year before, a commercial company had been running the Gloucester 10k, but they made something of a pig’s ear of it and people were not happy,” he said. The company pulled out. It was embarrassing for the city. “It was not just my own personal view, but I thought ‘why can’t Gloucester manage an event like this?” said Mr Tillott. “I think the local newspaper asked ‘why can’t Gloucester get even an event like this right?’" Up the Golden Valley, festivals and events seemed to grow and prosper. No help to a city with a confidence crisis.
96 | May 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
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