Sponsors Needed for Window Wanderland
The third Window Wanderland for Southville and Bedminster will be on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, February 23, 24 and 25 2018 (6-9pm). As well as the many decorated windows, the WW Group is hoping to publish a map as last year to help with the Wandery bit. However, this is likely to cost around £250 which the group currently does not have. We are therefore looking for organisations that will sponsor the event, either to the full amount or perhaps with two or three organisations sharing the cost. If your organisation would like to support this excellent local event, please contact the WW Group via gbcpnewsletter@gmail.com.
Other South Bristol neighbourhoods will also be doing Window Wanderland. Arnos Vale’s event will be at the same time as Southville/Bedminster and we understand that events are being planned in Windmill Hill, Bemmie/Malago Vale and Ashton Vale. We’ll bring you dates when we have them. But, also google Window Wanderland and see that it is now an international bit of fun. Not bad for something that started in Bishopston in 2015.
Apart from decorating the windows themselves, there’s a little bit of organising behind the scenes. Contact GBCP NEWSLETTER if you think you might like to help.
Keeping It Tidy or Back to the Silos?
We know that Neighbourhood Partnerships (NPs) are now dead and are being replaced by ‘new’ structures more rooted in local communities. Some, but probably not all, will adopt the existing NP boundaries. There will also be gaps, at least, for a year or two. It’s important therefore to acknowledge, and try to keep, one of the important benefits that arose from the ten years of NPs. This was in the structure of BCC and in police organisation.
Ten years ago, many council department were internally ‘decentralised’ in that they had teams in particular parts of the city. So, department A might be broken into 5 teams, each focusing, and therefore well informed, on a fifth of the city; department B might have eight local teams and so on. A major problem was that the pattern of any one department was usually based on a different geographical assumption from all of the others.
This posed two major problems. Firstly, it added to the difficulties of BCC teams working together (already difficult enough) and secondly, it made it difficult for people in the community to relate to BCC teams since you had to understand a complex pattern and who to contact in each case.
Following the establishment of the 14 NPs, BCC and the Police gradually altered their structures to come in line with NPs and therefore with each other. Sometimes this meant 14 units, but more usually it would be groupings around, say, two or three NPs. When NPs started, it was proposed that the Fire & Rescue Service and some bits of the NHS should also begin to mirror NPs, but I don’t think that got very far.
Under a less centralised neighbourhood structure and under pressure from ‘austerity’, there is a danger that this more supportive geography will begin to break down. Hopefully, BCC, the Police and community organisations will be vigilant enough to discourage this.
Bristol’s population
BCC has recently published a report on the city’s population, its composition by age, ethnicity, gender etc, their geographical distribution and projections for the future. For example, figures for the three ‘Bedminster’ wards include age profiles, thus…. Continue reading “NEWSLETTER (58:17) – Window Wonderland, Ashton Court future, Portishead rail line, population” →
There are some lovely drawings 🖼 on display in Dame Emily Park relating to the rubbish campaign “Take it in – Take it out”. Children from Holy Cross School are going to join in and so can you by creating one or more drawings and sending it to dameemilypark@gmail.com They will be laminated and displayed to make park users aware of the importance to look after the environment.