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Bristol Parks Forum

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

The forum is supported by Bristol City Council but acts independently and is currently the only 'community voice' that is dedicated to all of Bristol's green spaces.

The forum's three main roles are:

- to offer an opportunity to share ideas and experience;
- to act as a consultation body for the Bristol Parks service and other agencies;
- to influence decision-making, including the allocation of resources.

Bristol Parks Forum Terms of Reference

Find a Park Group in your area: Listing of Parks and Park Groups
Interested in starting a group? Download Bristol Parks Community Action Toolkit
Contact the Bristol Parks Forum:
Post your comments on anything to do with Bristol's Parks & Green Spaces on the Forum at www.troopers-hill.org.uk

Sign up to our mailing list >>

Latest News:
Bristol Parks Structure - Park Group Events - Castle Park - BDF - Save our Green Spaces
Wild City - Community Park Keepers - Chocolate Factory - Knowle West - Grove Woods
South Purdown - Ashton Vale - Areas Green Space Plans - Malago - Stoke Park - Railway Path

Bristol Parks' Structure

Bristol Parks' structure was changed in April 2009 following consultation with the BPF and others. On the ground the most significant change is that park groups are now dealing with Area Park Managers (APM) and Community Park Officers (CPO) rather than Community Park Managers (CPM). Bristol is now divided into four areas, each with an APM and a CPO instead of the previous eight areas. The structure, a map and outline job descriptions can be seen in this presentation which was given to the BPF meeting in May 2009: Bristol Parks - Structure, Roles & Responsibilities 16 May 2009 (pdf)

Members of the Parks Forum were surprised and concerned to learn in November 2009 that Peter Wilkinson had left his post as Head of Bristol Parks (though he is still employed by the Council). Peter has been in his post for several years and had been given additional responsibilities as part of the April 09 restructuring. Peter was a strong supporter of the BPF and his knowledge and experience were obviously of great benefit to Bristol's parks.

The BPF met Tracey Morgan (Service Director for Environment and Leisure) on 26 November and Fraser issued this statement:

"On Thursday evening Rob, Hugh and myself met with Tracey Morgan, the service director for environment and leisure. We had requested the meeting as members of Bristol Parks Forum had raised concerns over the continuing role of the Parks Forum as a result of the departure of Peter Wilkinson from his post. Concerns had also been raised that a large amount of knowledge and experience would be lost given Peter's departure.
We did have a constructive session with Tracey and the following points summarise the main areas of discussion.
* Tracey sees no change in the way that the Parks Forum works with Bristol Parks. She will present at the next forum meeting in January to share the work that has been undertaken over the last few months.
* Steve Moore worked in tandem with Tracey from the end of August until he left to affect the handover of the service director role.
* She is keen to see that what is working within Parks continues to do so and her focus will be on areas where improvement is required.
* Her priorities are the renewal of the central contract, completion of the area green space plans and improvement in the delivery of services.
* Tracey's recent background is with integrated Customer Services."

Tracey will be at the Parks Forum meeting on 16th January.

It is likely that there will be further changes in the structure at Bristol City Council in 2010 which will impact on the way that Parks are managed. In particular there are plans to devolve more powers to Neighbourhood Partnerships - see www.bristol.gov.uk/neighbourhoodpartnerships. There are also likely to be significant budget pressures. The BPF committee will continue to meet with Tracey and others in Bristol City Council to discuss any proposed changes and to do what we can to ensure that any changes work towards improving the day to day management of Bristol's parks and open spaces.

Park Groups and Events

Bristol Parks Forum are holding meetings with Bristol Parks to discuss way in which the Events licensing and funding process can be improved to encourage park groups to hold events. Some workshop sessions on this subject were held at our meeting on 31st October and a working group is holding further meetings in the hope of having a new process in place for 2010. The discussions have also now been widened to cover all aspects relating to events in parks incliding insurance, publicity and consultation.

Community Festival and Event Fund

As a result of these discussions Park Groups now have access to funding from Bristol City Council to run events in parks. This is an existing fund which has been expanded to cover park events. Unfortunately due to a lack of resources in the events team there is only a very limited window in which to apply for this funding. Applications for any events to be held before April 2011 need to be made by 4pm on 26th February 2010! There is also a detailed application form to complete for each event.

Guidelines and the application form can be downloaded from the links below:
Community Festival and Event Fund Introduction
Community Festival and Event Fund Guidelines
Community Festival and Event Fund Application Form - in Word Format

At the moment Park Groups will still be charged the £42 booking fee for use of the park (see below) so that should be included in the costs. For small events insurance cover is available from Bristol Parks for £5 per event. To satisfy BCC auditors, signed copies of the application form are required - scanned copies of the signed sheet can be sent by email to save postage.

For further information contact – Annette Thompson on 922 3287 or for Fund Criteria queries contact Claire Teasdale on 922 4665. Claire can meet Parks people who have not applied for funds before. Both Claire and Annette have email addresses in the usual BCC format and are part of the Events team based at Colston 33.

Background Information

These discussions about events started when BPF put a proposal to Bristol Parks to simplify the system in early 2009. The Bristol Parks Forum Committee are particularly opposed to the practice whereby Bristol City Council charge Park Groups for a licence for holding small scale events on their 'own' parks. These events are primarily aimed at promoting the parks and the groups. We feel that it us wrong to charge for these events which would help to achieve the aims set out in the Parks & Green Spaces Strategy to encourage use of parks. Our proposal can be seen here. On 18 Feb 2009 we asked our members via our mailing to tell us how many events they were likely to run under the current system and whether they would run more if it was simplified and the fee waived. Some of the resonses we received can be seen here.

Castle Park

The redevelopment of the buildings at the Bristol Bridge end of Castle Park has been a long running saga. In 2006 Bristol City Council and their developers published plans showing new office and residential blocks covering a large area of the park. The BPF and others objected to this since it was considered that the loss of green space in an area where there is already a shortage of green space was unaccepteable.

The threat to the green space led to the Town Green Application - see below.

Those early plans have now been withdrawn and Clr Gary Hopkins told the BPF meeting on 31 October that the developer has been told to produce new plans that consider improvements to the park first and then look at how to redvelop the buildings. Also at that meeting our attention was drawn to an alternative more sustainable plan that has been drawn up, this can be be seen via the link below.

St Mary Le Port Redevelopment and Castle Park - An alternative approach >>

Town Green Application

The User Group lodged an application to register Castle Park as a Town Green. If successful this would ensure that the park is not built on, but as expected the Council's preferred developer objected to the application.

A public inquiry started at the Old Council House, Corn St on Mon 1 December - it ran until Fri 5th Dec and was then adjourned until Wed 7th January 2009.

The Inspector, Vivian Chapman QC, recomended that the application be rejected.

The Rights of Way and Greens Committee considered the Town Green Application for Castle Park on 27 April but members voted unanimously in favour of deferring the decision because they were not satisfied that they had been provided with sufficient information regarding the status of the land. The committee met again on Monday 3rd August (with new members following the election) and Vivian Chapman QC was present at their request. As expected the Committee rejected the Castle Park application on one technical legal point (see below). However, many members of the committee clearly supported the idea of a Town Green designation and they passed a resolution asking the Cabinet to bring forward a voluntary Town Green application. They also suggested that other parks should be given Town Green status as part of the P&GSS.

This was potentially very positive news, but the Cabinet (on legal advice) have refused to progress the vountary declaration, though they have said that they want the park to be considered first in any development. Defra have a section about Town Greens about Town Greens on their website, which includes information about voluntary registration, it can be found here.

The meeting was webcast and is available to view on the City Council's website here.

Minutes of Rights of Way & Greens Committee 3rd Aug 2009
Report to the meeting on Castle Park - Questions submitted and written answers - statements to the meeting.

Minutes of the 27 April meeting.

Bristol Parks Forum issued a press release at the time of the inquiry and submitted a statement to the meeting on 27 April.

Bristol Parks Forum Statement on Castle Park 24 Apr 09

Bristol Parks Forum Press Release 05 Dec 08

Castle Park Users Group's barrister firmly believes that the inspector's decision on the legal point that led to the application being rejected is wrong in law and that they should appeal.  He believes that they have a strong case and a good chance of winning. His opinion is supported by thier legal advisor who has taken other such cases to review. Given this, they have decided to take the decision to judicial review. The judicial review will of course cost money. Some of this is expected to covered by legal aid but they need to raise £2,500. Details of the appeal can be seen here:

Keep Castle Park Green Appeal

'This is Bristol' reports: 30 July 2008 - 27 Oct - 2 Dec - 3 Dec - 5 Dec - 7 Jan 09 - 4 Aug 09 Letter: 5 Aug
BBC Bristol: 1 Dec (includes radio interview with Helen Holland)

More information at www.castlepark.org.uk

Bristol Development Framework

It is important that Park Groups engage in this process. The BDF Core Strategy was approved at a meeting of the full Council on 10 November and can be seen here. The next stage is 'Site Allocations' - consultation on which will take place from June to September 2010. There have been a series of community involvement sessions in which Park Groups have taken part, the last of which was in September. We have been told that 'the team working on the core strategy has used the notes from the meeting to continue to refine the emerging Core Strategy, in particular the policies for Green Infrastructure, Housing Provision and Green Belt'.

More information on our Bristol Development Framework page >>

Save Our Green Spaces

This campaign which was mentioned at our July meeting has been very successful in getting publicity. The Ashton Vale Heritage Group are part of the campaign, they are also members of the BPF and spoke to us at our meeting in January.

The campaign is to save open countryside around Bristol and in West of England and to oppose the proposed urban extensions and other large scale developments. If you would like to show your support then there are letters that you can download from their website to send to the Secretary of State (now John Denham rather than Hazel Blears) and your MP.

Planning application for Ashton Park   www.bristol.gov.uk/swbue

More information at   www.saveourgreenspaces.org

'This is Bristol' reports: 27 May 09 - 09 June - 17 June - 14 October

Wild City Consultation

Bristol City Council is bidding to Natural England for Access to Nature funding for an exciting new three-year project called Wild City. Wild City aims to build on the huge success of the Nature in the City project which was co-ordinated by Bristol City Council and run by Sally Oldfield as Local Nature Reserves Officer. Many of the BPF member groups were involved in the Nature in the City Project and were disappointed when the project ended in September 2008 so this bid is considered to be good news.

Bristol Parks consulted with the BPF member groups involved in the Nature Reserves and other interested organisations during October and November 2009; the bid was submitted at the end of December. The bid as submitted is for a grant of £250,000 out of a total project cost of over £330,000 The project will fund one full time Local Nature Reserves Officer and cover 14 sites, 7 of which will be the core sites. The bid will now be assessed by Natural England with the result announced in the Spring or early summer. More details:

Wild City Consultation Flyer - Wild City Map - Nature in the City Project

The BPF agreed at its meeting on 31 October 2009 that it should formally support this project and submitted a letter of support which can be seen here.

New Community Park Keepers

Bristol City Council are planning to introduce nine additional Community Park Keepers (CPK) by February 2010. These are additional posts, an increase in the Parks workforce that should bring real improvements to the way the parks to which they are allocated are maintained. It has not yet been confirmed which parks they will cover but the intention is for them to be the most used parks and parks where there are problems with anti-social behaviour. It is also intended that the CPKs should have flexible working hours so that they can be on site when thy are most needed. There are currently only seven CPKs so this is a big step forward.

You can see where the existing CPKs are based in the structure for Bristol Parks (which was established following a reorganisation in April 2009) here.

A full job description can be seen here

Railway Path at the Chocolate Factory at Greenbank

This development (Planning application ref 08/03862/F) proposes to use land adjacent to the Railway Path that is owned by Bristol City Council and designated as Parks land under the P&GSS. The Land Ownership Plan shows the areas concerned. One area (in blue) is shown as 'being aquired by Square Peg'. The other area (in green) is alongside the path and in front of the proposed 'cycle houses' - Square Peg wish to lease this land to use to provide access to the houses via steps from the path. In October 2008 we met with Bristol Parks to discuss this issue and notes of that meeting are available here. We were assured that the sale had not yet been agreed and Bristol Parks promised that since the Area Green Space Plan has not yet been completed, there would be a consultation process before any green space is sold for this development.

This consultation was held in Dec 08/Jan 09 - there is a dedicated section on the Bristol City Council website: www.bristol.gov.uk/bristolrailwaypathpublicconsultation where a report on the responses to the consultation can also be seen.

Following agreement at our meeting on 24 Jan the BPF submitted a response to the consultation, it can be seen here

The consultation was separate to the planning process. The application was approved by the planning committee on 1 April.

Gary Hopkins gave an update on this site to the BPF meeting on 16 May 2009. Gary reported that the sale of this land was now considered to be a key decision to be made by executive members rather than officers. He said that he was unhappy with how this issue had been dealt with in the past but that the position was now that there was a scheme with planning permission that was generally thought to be beneficial to the area.

Gary stated that the smaller area 'Plot 1' had been leased to the Chocolate Factory in the past so could be considered as part of that site, also that without this land the development would not happen. It had therefore been decided to sell this land.

The larger 'Plot 2' runs along the cycle path and was mainly wanted for the multiple accesses to the 'Cycle Houses' - it was the lease of this land to which the BDF particularly objected. Gary said that there would now be a separate consultation on this land with two options - one with the multiple access ways and one with a reduced number of access points crossing the land.

The results of this second consultation have now been added to the website at www.bristol.gov.uk/bristolrailwaypathpublicconsultation . There were only 41 responses and the decision has been taken to allow the individual accesses as per the planning application.

'This is Bristol' reports: 11 Sept - 10 Sept - 19 Nov - 16 Feb - 19 Feb - 02 Apr - 08 Apr - 31 Aug

Knowle West Regeneration

Bristol City Council is consulting on a Knowle West Regeneration Framework to guide the planned regeneration in Knowle West. This regeneration will impact on several parks and green spaces in the area and there are concerns as to how this process will interface with the P&GSS and the Area Green Space Plans for the area. There seems to be a risk that the pressure for redevelopment will over ride the principle set out in the P&GSS that any disposal of Parks land for development will be only of 'low value' space. Sites of particular concern are Filwood Park, Newquay Rd Playing Fields and the Northern Slopes proposed Local Nature Reserve which includes several Sites of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI).

The sale of Filwood Park was agreed at the same Cabinet meeting as the P&GSS was adopted - but some 30 minutes later. This was discussed at the BPF meeting on 11th October 2008 and it was agreed that the BPF would submit a statement to the Full Council meeting on 14th October - the statement and a press release can be seen below. The BPF wrote to Rosalie Walker as the executive member with responsibility for parks on this issue but didn't receive a response.

BPF statement on Filwood Park to Full Council Meeting 14th October 2008 - BPF press release

At our October 2008 meeting Peter Wilkinson mentioned an email from Richard Mond that referred to Filwood Park - that email can be seen here: Richard Mond email 7 Feb 2008. The email was part of a discussion on the disposal of P&GSS sites that Bristol City Council considered had been agreed prior to the adoption of the P&GSS. Richard later added the development at J3 of the M32 to the list.

Newquay Road Playing Fields were previously used as school playing fields but there has been unrestricted public access for sometime. They are not currently included as a P&GSS site but the BPF considers that they should be and has formally asked that they be added to the P&GSS maps - Newquay Road Playing Fields petition

The Northern Slopes are also covered by the Knowle West Regeneration Framework and also by the Kingswear/Novers/Marksbury Road/Novers Masterplan. The BDF SHLAA assessment included part of the The Northern Slopes within area ST111. More information about the site can be found on the the Northern Slopes Initiative (NSI) website at www.northern-slopes-initiative.co.uk

The latest proposed options (produced for Bristol City Council by by a London-based architecture practice FAT) can be seen via the link below. These proposals include building on part of the Northern Slopes Proposed Local Nature Reserve which is also designated as an SNCI. Some of the proposed bendy-bus routes in south Bristol will also cross the Northern Slopes.

Council's webpage for Knowle West Regeneration Framework

Proposed options for the Kingswear/Novers/Marksbury Road Masterplan

More information on the bendy-bus routes for South Bristol from the West of England Partnership

'This is Bristol' reports: 10 Oct - 11 Oct - 15 Oct - 20 Oct - 21 Oct - 2 Dec 08 - 15 Aug 09

Grove Woods

GOOD NEWS - the Development Control (South and East) Committee agreed on the 29 October to grant a blanket Tree Protection Order across the whole of Grove Wood, including the 27 trees that the landowner had previously been given permission to fell. The order was confirmed at a further meeting in April.

This followed the submission of a Petition with 4,668 names calling on the City Council to Compulsory Purchase Grove Woods by the Snuff Mills Action Group to the Full Council meeting on 14th October. A statement from Cllr. Mark Bradshaw the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development about Grove Woods which was given to the meeting can be seen here.

NOT Good News - There are still problems. 'Temporary' fencing has been installed in the Wood to block one of the paths and there is ongoing work to trees. You can keep up to date with developments by visiting the blog at http://snuffmills.blogspot.com/.

'This is Bristol' reports: 14 Oct - 15 Oct - 28 Oct - 26 Jan - 31 Mar - 02 Apr - 18 Apr

South Purdown

There has been a long running dispute over proposals to fence off a large part of the open space at Purdown next to Muller Rd and build school playing pitches over it. Friends of South Purdown have been leading the campaign and it has been discussed at a number of BPF meetings with the BPF always showing its support. The latest stage was for a public inquiry to be held into the diversion of a public footpath across the site. The public inquiry was held on Dec 9th at Fairfield School but unfortunatey the inspector allowed the diversion to proceed. The Friends of South Purdown have also applied for two other routes across the site to be designated as footpaths, this might require another inquiry...

'This is Bristol' reports/letters: 21 Oct - 24 Oct - 9 Dec - 21 Jan

Saving Ashton Vale's Heritage

The Ashton Vale Heritage Group has been set up to campaign to save a privately owned Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI). Some details of the site and an appeal for help can be seen in this statement from the group. At our meeting in January 2009 the BPF agreed to support the Group in its campaign to save the SNCI from development and the BPF submitted a statement calling for the planning application for Ashton Vale Football Stadium to be rejected due to the impact on the SNCI which can be seen here. The group have now submitted a Town Green Application for the site.

The planning application, with outline planning permission for houses on the SNCI, which is to the south of the area planned for the stadium was considered by the planning committee on Wednesday 4 November. The committee suported the planning officers recomendation and stated that they were 'minded to approve' the stadium, but they rejected the idea of housing on the SNCI. The application will now be re-submitted and considered by the committee agan in a few months time.

Details of the Application and the officer's report >>

Approval of the application at the meeting in November would have allowed the enabling work to be carried out for the housing. As part of this the ground levels in the northern part of the SNCI would have beeen lowered by approximately 0.8m and for the land in the southern half of the site to be raised by a similar amount. The platform created in the southern half of the site would have beeen used for the housing. The northern half of the site was to be used for flood retention and as a wildlife area and, in an amendment to the officer's report, this was not rejected. So over 50% of the SNCI would have been permanently destroyed and then used for housing, while the remainder might still destroyed when the level is reduced but then reinstated. Of course the claim is that the reinstated area would result in a better habitat than that currently existing with more areas of permanent wetland and a management plan to ensure it is properly maintained. There is also talk of fencing it off to prevent access from people and pets so as to protect the wildlife. This is known as mitigation. The whole area is of course also Greenbelt.

There is now talk of using this area being used for an arena instead of housing - so it seem there are many future battles still to fight to protect this area.

AVHG Letter to BPF 16 January 2010 meeting

More information at   www.ashtonvaleheritage.co.uk   and   www.saveourgreenspaces.org

'This is Bristol' reports: 06 Sept - 28 Oct - 06 Nov - 07 Nov - 10 Nov - 15 Dec - 16 Feb 09 - 13 Aug 09 - Articles in support of the stadium also apeared in nearly every edition of the Evening Post prior to the planning meeting.

BBC website coverage of planning meeting

This is Bristol report on Town Green application

Ashton Vale Heritage Group Statement to Cabinet 30 Oct 08

Details of the Application and the officer's report >>

Areas Green Space Plans

It is vital that as many Park Groups as possible get involved in this process - remember it is this that will decide which areas of Bristol's green space (if any) will be sold.

The public consultation on the AGSPs has been delayed and will now run from June to September 2010. This is so that it coincides with the BDF Site Allocations consultation. The BPF Conference to discuss the AGSPs will now probably be held in July.

More details - Parks & Green Spaces Strategy >>

Bus Rapid Transit Latest - Malago saved?

It looks like the Malago is safe from the bendy bus threat. It was reported in the Evening Post and confirmed by Clr Gary Hopkins at the BPF meeting on 31 October that the Malago is no longer being considered for the 'Hengrove to the City Centre' route. The proposed routes are shown on the West of England Partnership website here.

It's not all good news though; the second option still seems to pose a threat to the Northern Slopes proposed LNR - www.northern-slopes-initiative.co.uk. It has also been pointed out that it looks like one route will cover over some of Pigeonhouse stream at the bottom of the Hartcliffe Way near the fire station. Filwood Park also seems to be on a possible route.

More information at www.malago.org

BPF questions to Cabinet 30 Oct 08 about Cycling City with answers

More information on the bendy-bus routes for South Bristol from the West of England Partnership

'This is Bristol' reports: 07 Aug 09 - 08 Aug 09 - 15 Aug 09 - 19 Oct 09

Stoke Park

Bristol City Council Cabinet decided in principle to take Stoke Park into Council ownership at the Cabinet meeting on 2 April. This was originally to have been considered on 26 February, however, due to the change in control of the Council at the budget meeting on the 24th, the meeting was cancelled. The report to Cabinet can be seen here. Prior to the cancellation of the February meeting Bristol Parks Forum had submitted a statement expressing its support, but raising some concerns on funding and the longterm protection of the site - this was submitted to the 2 April meeting.

Bristol Parks Forum Statement on Stoke Park 24 Feb 2009

It was reported to our October meeting that this process is now nearing completion.

'This is Bristol' reports: 20 Feb - 28 Mar - 01 Apr

Save the Bristol to Bath Railway Path

At its meeting on 19 April 2008 the Bristol Parks Forum confirmed its support for the campaign to save the Railway Path and to protect this linear park and wildlife corridor.

More information at www.railwaypath.org    -   Sign the Save the Railway Path e-petition

Contacts

Bristol Parks Forum

Bristol Parks Forum Committee:
Chair - Fraser from the Castle Park Users Group
Vice Chair - Hugh from Mina Road Park Group
Both can serve until 2010.
Other committee members:
Alison, Redland & Cotham AS; Rob, Friends of Troopers Hill; Roland, Mina Rd Park Group; Nancy, Kingfisher Group.
You can email both Fraser and Hugh via . These emails will also be seen by Rob & Alison.

Bristol Parks

Bristol Parks manage all parks and green spaces in the City of Bristol. If you would like more information about the parks or wish to report any problems or issues relating to your park please contact Bristol Parks directly.
Email: or phone 0117 922 3719 - this is available Mon to Fri 8.30am - 5pm (4.30pm Fri).
You can also visit the Bristol Parks website at www.bristol.gov.uk/parks

For administration purposes Bristol Parks divide the City into four 'Service Delivery Areas' - North, Central, East & South. There is also a separate unit to manage the large estates or destination parks. Our Listing of Parks and Park Groups shows which area each park is in. The following link shows Bristol Parks' structure and shows who is responsible for each area: Bristol Parks - Structure, Roles & Responsibilities 16 May 2009 (pdf)

For general enquiries relating to the organisation of Park Groups and the support available from Bristol Parks contact Rraquib Khandker, Community Development Officer.

Bristol Parks Promise 2009 - Bristol Parks' staff will all be signing up to this promise to park users about the way that they will conduct themselves in the new organisation.

Meetings

The forum meets at least four times a year. In addition the BPF committee meet senior managers at Bristol Parks prior to each meeting and at other times if it is considered necessary.

Next meeting - Saturday 10th April at Netham Pavilion, Netham Park, Avonvale Road, Redfield, Bristol BS5 9RN
Other meeting for 2010 (venues to be confirmed):
Saturday 17 July - all day conference to discuss Area Green Space Plans
Saturday 9 October

Last Parks Forum meeting:
Saturday 16th January 2010 - Vassall Centre, Fishponds BS16 2QQ - Minutes here.
This meeting was followed by a very interesting visit to Snuff Mills hosted by the Snuff Mills Action Group.

Previous meetings:
Saturday 31st October - at Windmill Hill City Farm - Minutes; Events Workshop Notes; Play Pathfinder Display (4.5 MB);
Saturday 25th July - at Windmill Hill City Farm - Minutes; Appendix 1 - Events; Appendix 2 - Parks' Support to BPF
Saturday 16th May - at Windmill Hill City Farm - Minutes here
BPF Saturday 24th January - at Windmill Hill City Farm - Minutes here
BPF Saturday 11th October - at Windmill Hill City Farm - Minutes here
Meeting with Bristol Parks 7th October 2008: Notes of meeting
BPF Saturday 12th July 2008 - at Windmill Hill City Farm - Minutes here
BPF Saturday 19th April 2008 - at Windmill Hill City Farm - Minutes here
BPF Saturday 19th January 2008 - at Windmill Hill City Farm - Minutes here

Email List

Between meetings we keep Park Groups informed of issues of interest via email.
Please email if you would like to be added to our mailing list or use the link below.

Sign up to our mailing list >>

We are happy to have more than one email address for your group - we will not publish these addresses or pass them to anyone else.
There is also a separate list of Park Groups kept by Bristol Parks which includes postal addresses and is used to send out meeting agendas and minutes.

The content of previous email messages can be seen via the links below, each pdf file contains all the messages sent that month - note it may take sometime for emails to be posted here, join our mailing list if you want to keep upto date!

May/June 2008 - July 2008 - August 2008 - September 2008 - October 2008 - November 2008 - December 2008

January 2009 - February 2009 - March 2009 - April 2009 - May 2009 - June 2009 - July 2009 - August 2009 - September 2009 - October 2009 - November 2009 - December 2009

January 2010

Membership

Membership is open to all community park groups and similar organisations with an interest in protecting and enhancing green space in Bristol. New groups are always welcome to join us, membership is free but groups must comply with the criteria set out in the Bristol Parks Forum Terms of Reference.

Groups wanting to become members of the BPF should complete our Membership Record Form. These can be downloaded from the links below in pdf or in Word format so that it can be filled in and emailed back to us. The form is also used to give us details to be published in the 'Bristol Parks Forum Directory'.

Membership Record Form in pdf format
Membership Record Form in Word format

The 2007 version of the directory can be downloaded here: Bristol Parks Forum Directory 2007.

Groups wishing to appear in the 2010 directory should return the Membership Record Form by 15 February 2010.

We also have a list of all Bristol's parks and park groups.
The current list can be found here: Listing of Parks and Park Groups >>

Information for Park Groups

The following information and links are provided as a resource for Park Groups but may also be useful to anyone who uses Bristol's parks.

Who to contact:
For general issues relating to your park or green space contact Bristol Parks by email to or phone 0117 922 3719 Mon to Fri 8.30am - 5pm (4.30pm Fri). Alternatively you can contact Bristol Parks by text on 0771 039 6713.

The structure for Bristol Parks (which was established following a reorganisation in April 2009) is shown here

For removal of drug and sex related litter call the rapid clean up hotline on 0117 922 2100 - this is available Monday to Friday between 8.30am and 8.00pm. You will need to tell them the location and the type of litter.

If you witness anti social behaviour in a park or green space in Bristol, please report it to either the 'It's Your Call' action line on 0845 605 2222 or the non-emergency police line on 0845 456 7000. Whilst a police response will not always be possible, these calls will help build up a picture of hotspots and issues in your area and are extremely valuable in helping reduce antisocial behaviour.

For general enquiries relating to the organisation of Park Groups and the support available from Bristol Parks contact Rraquib Khandker, Community Development Officer.

In our experience Bristol Parks generally respond to queries promptly and try to help where they can, however, if you are not satisfied with the response you receive from Bristol Parks please contact us via and we will try to help resolve your problem.

You can also contact your local councillors and discuss local problems with them, many councillors attend meetings of local park groups.

Community Action Toolkit
Bristol Parks have produced this very informative document which is available for download from their website via the link below. The toolkit is mainly aimed at new groups but contains information that all groups will find helpful.
Download Bristol Parks Community Action Toolkit

Parks Monitoring Forms
Bristol Parks have produced these forms to encourage park groups to monitor the quality of maintenance of their parks. The forms can be printed and the completed forms sent to the freepost post address shown at the end of the form.
Parks Monitoring form.

Management and Maintenance Standards
The standards that Bristol Parks aims to achieve for management and maintenance are described on the Bristol Parks website and can be seen here: Bristol Parks Management and Maintenance Standards.

Other items of general interest relating to parks & green spaces
(please let us know if there is anything you think should be posted here).

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