Green Capital – Bristol Parks Forum

Green Capital 2015 Events

Bristol 2015 has now launched its initial Events Programme.

Details can be seen at www.bristol2015.co.uk/events where there is a pdf file to download which will be updated as more events are added.

Park Groups can sign up and add their own events to the events calendar, which will also take you through a simple process to access the Bristol 2015 brand. To do this, go to www.bristol2015.co.uk and click on “Get Involved”.

If you are planning an event then there are a range of Green Capital Grants available to help fund them.

Some of the events will be one off celebrations, while others with be projects running throughout the year.

One project that will be of partiicular interest to BPF members will be the designation of 4 new Local Nature Reserves in addition to the 4 that are in the process of being designated now as a result of the Wild City Project that finished earlier this year.

Bristol 2015 say:

Bristol will celebrate improved environmental protection of several areas by completing a programme of designating eight new Local Nature Reserves, doubling the number in the city between October 2014 and October 2015. The city plans to designate four new LNRs before the end of 2014 in preparation for 2015 – Lamplighters Marsh (Shirehampton), Avon New Cut (Southville), Northern Slopes (Knowle, Knowle West and Bedmister), Narrow Ways Junction (St Werburghs). Another four are planned to follow by October 2015, with applications opening earlier in the year.

A list of the 8 current Local Nature Reserves and the 4 currently being designated can be seen here www.bristol.gov.uk/localnaturereserves

Green Capital 2015 – Grants

With just 100 days to go until the start of Bristol’s Green Capital year the Bristol 2015 Company has revamped its website and introduced a new branding at www.bristol2015.co.uk

For Parks Forum members, the most important section of the new website at the moment is probably on the availability of grants. There are three different grant streams available depending on the size of the projects. The smallest grants for local initiatives and events are being distributed through the Neighbourhood Partnerships which each have an initial £10,000 to allocate to projects in their area. Each Partnership has its own closing dates.

For larger projects grants of up to £10,000 there is The Bristol 2015 Small Grants Fund which is being administered by Quartet. There will be four opportunities to apply for a grant for this fund. The application deadlines are 17th October 2014 and then in 2015 January 5th, April 6th and July 1st.

The third grant stream is for larger strategic grants of £25k – £50k.

There is lots of other information on the website and more will be added as 2015 approaches, including details of the many events that are planned. One of our committee members gets a mention on the website here: www.bristol2015.co.uk/green-and-good.

Bristol Parks Forum along with many other organisations in the City are members of the Bristol Green Capital Partnership which has its own website at www.bristolgreencapital.org. The Partnership has 12 thematic action groups working to make Bristol a greener city and this work will continue after 2015. There are many links between the two organisations and much of what Bristol 2015 does will be driven by the Partnership.

Parks Forum committee member, Fraser Bridgeford, is co-chair of the Nature, Wildlife and Green Spaces Action Group along with Robin Maynard (Avon Wildlife Trust).

Green Capital Partnership

BGC_Logo Bristol Parks Forum are now members of the Bristol Green Capital Parnership – www.bristolgreencapital.org

The Partnership is a free membership organisation whose aim is to make Bristol “a low carbon city with a high quality of life for all”.

The BPF committee agreed to join the Partnership because they considered it important that the BPF and Park Groups have a say in the plans for Bristol Green Capital 2015. Being members may also help us access funds to benefit green spaces in 2015.

The partnership is currently setting up sub-groups to focus on particular sectors, these groups will then feed into a steering group that will create the partnership’s strategy and work with the company that is being set up to run Bristol Green Capital 2015 – see www.bristol2015.co.uk

One of the groups will cover Nature, Wildlife and Green Spaces and will probably be led by the West of England Nature Partnership www.wenp.org.uk, the BPF will be part of this group.

Several Park Groups are also members of the Partnership in their own right. If your group wishes to join then you can do so by signing up to the Green Capital Partnership Pledge www.bristolgreencapital.org/contact/pledge

You can see the full list of members of the Partnership at www.bristolgreencapital.org/about/pledgers/