July 2013 – Bristol Parks Forum

Kings Weston Walks

Walk2 Kings Weston Action Group have just launched a new walking guide, their second.

There are more details about the launch in the Bristol Post here

Both walks start from Shirehampton Road car park and are about 2.5miles. The atractive colour guides have clear maps and directions.

The guides can be downloaded as pdf files from the links below. Printed copies will be distributed through the city’s Library network, local venues in Shirehampton, Sea Mills, and Lawrence Weston as well as being available at Kings Weston itself.

To find out more about the Kings Weston Action Group, visit their facebook page at www.facebook.com/KingsWestonActionGroup

Download Walk 1 – Horseshoe Bend

Download Walk 2 – Kings Weston Hill

Refurbished Old Bowling Green on Brandon Hill

Free Yoga, Tai Chi, and Keep Fit Classes.

This year marked the completion of the Friends of Brandon Hill Project to refurbish the Old Bowling Green. The project was Lottery Funded through the Community Spaces Programme.

The space has already been used for out door plays as part of the Bristol Shakespeare Festival and now Friends of Brandon Hill have organised a series of Yoga, Tai Chi and Keep Fit Classes over the summer; details below:

Yoga

Led by Catherine Walker who teaches hatha yoga. A friendly and energetic teacher, her classes are suitable for beginners and those more familiar with yoga. They consist of easy-to-follow yoga poses, designed to increase strength and flexibility, with simple and advanced options. They will leave you feeling energised and refreshed. Mats will be provided.

Tuesday mornings 7.15am 30th July; 6th, 13th, 20th August
Contact: 07970 849984, yoga@flowyo.co.uk, t: @flow_yo

Tai Chi

Led by Ben Milton and the Bristol School of Tai Chi instructor team. Challenging for young and old. Long revered as an exercise to promote health, balance, and calm, Chen Style Tai Chi is challenging enough for both young and old. Initially done slowly, one learns grace and balance through a precise study of one’s own body and its movement within the space surrounding it. Later, movements can be done at any speed following one’s own intent, whether in class or in daily life.

Bring your friends and family along to practise together and enjoy a free lesson.

Sunday, 28th July; 11th, 25th August 13 10am

Saturday, 7th , 21st September 13 10am

Contact: 0117 9493955, taichi@bristoltaichi.com, www.bristoltaichi.com

Keep Fit

Led by personal trainer Vicki Hill. Vicki has crafted individual training schedules for clients throughout Bristol. For Brandon Hill she has developed training programmes for beginner, intermediate and advanced using the many feature of Brandon Hill to increase your fitness. These sessions will be your introduction to these programmes.
Sundays 9:30am and 10am from 4th August
4th August Beginner 9:30am, Intermediate 10am
18th August Beginner 9:30am, Advanced 10am
1st September Beginner 9:30am, Intermediate 10am
15th September Beginner 9:30am, Advanced 10am
29th September Beginner 9:30am, Intermediate 10am

Green Flag Awards 2013

There are 12 Green Flag winners in Bristol this year.

The Green Flag Award Scheme covers the whole of the UK and recognises well-managed, high-quality green spaces. Any green space in the UK is eligible to win this award providing it is freely accessible to the public.

grennflag_community_rgb Parks Forum member Snuff Mills Action Group has for the second time been awarded the Green Flag Community Award. The Community award is for green spaces in the UK that are managed by voluntary and community groups.

In addition Bristol Parks has been awarded 11 Green Flags for parks throughout the City that it manages. Community involvement is an important part of the Green Flag Award scheme, so the various Parks Groups involved in these parks have played a major part in the City winning these awards.

The Green Flag winning parks in Bristol are:
The Downs – TroopersHill – which won their first flags in 2007
Queen Square & Blaise Castle Estate – 2008
Ashton Court Estate & St Paul’s Park – 2009
Netham Park – 2010
St Andrew’s Park – 2011
Canford Park, Greville Smyth Park and Redcatch Park – 2012

The certificates for the 11 parks were presented by Mayor George Ferguson at Blaise Castle Estate this morning.

To fly a Green Flag a park has to meet the following criteria:

1. A welcoming place
2. Healthy, safe and secure
3. Clean and well maintained
4. Sustainability
5. Conservation and heritage
6. Community involvement
7. Marketing
8. Management

To see a more detailed description of the criteria visit the Green Flag Award website.

The Green Flag Award Scheme is licenced to Keep Britain Tidy by Communities and Local Government (DCLG) who own the green Flag Award Scheme. The scheme was set up in 1996.

A full list of 2013/14 winners on the Keep Britain Tidy website: Green Flag Awards 2013

Keep Britain Tidy press release: Another record-breaking year for Green Flag Awards

Bristol City Council Green Flag Page: www.bristol.gov.uk/greenflagparks

A Plea for Trees

As you may have noticed some of the trees we have planted this year and even in previous years are struggling in this hot weather. We have been increasing our watering rounds so the contractors are working flat out to ensure all the recently planted trees are being watered once a week.

However, if you have a few minutes and a handy bucket or watering-can to spare, the extra water will make a big difference to the trees during this hot weather.

Thank you

TreeBristol

Welcome

to the Bristol Parks Forum Website

Below are posts giving the latest news on various subjects of interest to Park Forum members.

Explore the rest of the site for information about the Forum and Bristol’s parks and green spaces.

Last funding round opens for Big Tree Plant

The sixth and final round of funding for a national campaign that aims to plant one million trees by 2015 has opened and organisations have until 30 August 2013 to apply.

The Big Tree Plant encourages people and communities to plant more trees in England’s towns, cities and neighbourhoods. Funding is available to any community and voluntary group, or other non-profit organisations that are keen to establish a community-led tree planting project.

Groups working in deprived areas where trees would help to improve residents’ quality of life are strongly encouraged to apply. The advice phone line is 0800 856 7984.

More information is also available at
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/england-bigtreeplant

Town & Village Green Update

The Public Rights of Way & Greens (PROWG) committee met on Monday 8th July. They agreed to ignore the inspector’s view on the Laundry Field and allow the change to the application area so that the agreement could go ahead, there is an article from the Bristol Post here

The BPF committee submitted a statement to the meeting that can be seen here

The committee also considered Stoke Lodge and agreed to make a final decision at its next meeting in October as reported here

Following the recent changes to TGV legislation through the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 a new Consultation on registration of new town or village greens runs until Monday 19 August 2013 and can be read here

The new Act has restricted the right to apply for land to be a TGV where it has been listed for development ot a planning application has been submitted for the land. The consultation considers extending the restrictions where land is part of a neighbourhood planning process.