Bristol Parks Forum

[Jo Corke]

...........
Bristol Parks Forum is the umbrella organisation for community park groups and organisations in the city with an interest in their local parks and green spaces.

You can find their website listed under 'other' in our Useful Links section.

Strictly speaking it is the group that is a member of the BPF, though they are happy to add several people from each group to the mailing list. Also anyone from the group is welcome to attend BPF meetings, though strictly speaking there should only be two representatives from each group. We would only need to restrict our numbers if the meetings became too popular!

Currently we have four Friends of St Andrews Park (FOSAP) interested in BPF, but it is an open group and you would be welcome too.

As well as official minutes we get informal notices and we intend to publish them here.

The BPF draft, in easy to understand format, of the most recent quarterly meeting is here.
meeting 31.10.09.doc

The official minutes and notes are here:Minutes_Parks Forum Meeting 311009.pdf and here; Workshop Notes Oct 09.txt

John Mayne, Richard Howell, Simon Randolph, Jo Corke, Steve Perry.

BPF Conference Saturday 16th January 2010 - Vassall Centre, Fishponds BS16 2QQ timings to be confirmed.
The main aim of this event will be to consider the Area Green Space Plans for all 14 Neighbourhood Partnership Areas as part of the public consultation process.

[Jo Corke]

This newsletter 4.12.09 contains:
Head of Parks,
Area Green Space Consultation Delay,
BPF 4.12.09.doc

[Jo Corke]

The most recent newsletter BPF 29.11.09 contains:
Peter Wilkinson – update.
Fantastic news about Snuff Mills
Bendy Buses BRT - North Bristol to Hengrove
BPF 29.11.09.doc

[Fo SAP]

Report from the meeting 30.10.09
Steve Perry , FoSAP representative.

1. OPERATIONS UPDATE
a] Contracts . 7 tenders received for the new Central Area [which includes St A.Park] maintenance contract. Currently being assessed , with intention of having the selected company commencing in Feb 2010. The South Area contract has already been let to Quadrant, and although too early to say, despite there being a few teething problems with levels of communication, the Forum reps for that area were "quietly optimistic" !
b]Community Park Keepers. Adverts are out for 9 new recruits, with the aim of being operational early in 2010. The aim is for them to be very "hands on ", park-based, and recruits should have good horticultural knowledge. There is no decision yet as to where they will be based [eg St A P ? ] , as there are more than 9 potential locations , and there will be a need for some doubling up. The key criteria will be high levels of use and relatively high levels of anti social behaviour. They will work closely with the Community Park Officers [who I assume have wider overview , coordinating and managing contracts , etc on all Bristol's open spaces] .Also , there has, apparently, been agreement recently reached with the Police's Community Safety Officers [part funded by the Council ] re their greater involvement in parks in dealing with antisocial behaviour.
What has been your experience, so far, of your contact with the Community Park Officer for St A P? ----from a straw poll across the Forum , it was patchy , but included some positive experiences , especially in responding to issues
2. WORKSHOP ON EVENTS
Following the brief note circulated at the previous meeting, a workshop took place to feed into the review of the whole Park Events process, looking at Licensing, Funding, Health and Safety, Communication/ Marketing, Consultation. Jennifer Crook is coordinating this piece of work. I joined the Licensing Group, and we had a very good session. The intention is that Jennifer will put together a paper with a draft series of proposals. I volunteered, with 4 others, to be in a sub group of the Forum who would do an initial comment on the paper, due before Xmas. I will update more at the 2nd Dec FoSAP meeting
3. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
There were items on this re Ashton Vale, Stoke Park, Rapid Transit Lines 2 and 3, Chocolate Factory Pathfinder Projects [---all , apparently, on target, but the meeting was not the place for discussion on individual projects ---as I have not heard otherwise ,I assume that St AP is due to start soon ], Area Green Spaces Plan [---as reported last time , this will be the main item at the Forum conference in January ], Castle Park. I will report on any of these which you would like info on , at the 2nd Dec meeting
Hope that makes sense ------see you on the 2nd ---very best wishes --Steve