All posts in the topic Launch Topic 1: How would you like to see Wicklea used now and in the future? (Short link)
Summary
- There are 9 posts — by 5 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Mark Leach at Oct 14 09:54 UTC
To mark the formal launch of this forum we'd like to hear your views about
Wicklea and how you'd like to see it used now and in future.
All the best
Angela Piccini
Chair, Brislington Community Partnership
Hello everyone. I think the potential for Wicklea is huge as long as there's
the structure in place to staff it and manage it. It needs to be open and used
for as many hours as is practicable. I think as a hub of all this there should
be a cafe - somewhere to wait, meet, mingle with a good notice board and
leaflets to find out what's going on in Wicklea and around the area.
Rosie
As Maurice King, who runs Wicklea's excellent Silver Surfers IT club reminded
us at last night's Community Partnership meeting, the City Council website
advertises Wicklea as being open for hire. Yet, the City has also removed its
on-site management of the building: it's difficult to book and to gain access
and Wicklea remains a very closed-looking building.
A number of people both inside and outside the Partnership feel the need to
have a community centre which is "owned" by the community and is developed and
run for the community's benefit. We have that potential with Wicklea Youth and
Community Centre.
Obviously, it would require huge capital investment and the investment in human
resources to run the space as a true community space. At the same time, as
Maurice also reminded me, there are Government directives to hand over, where
possible, buildings such as Wicklea to the community. This option was
investigated by the Partnership a few years ago but we were told by the Council
that this was not an option. With the current global economic woes and more
local collapse of the property markets, might the time be right to form a
working group to investigate the practicalities of cooperatively running such a
space?
If there's anyone on this forum who'd like to pursue this and who knows others
with the expertise and financial and planning nous to push this forward, please
respond to this and I can take this local enthusiasm to the Council.
All best
Angela Piccini
Chair, Brislington Community Partnership
I agree with Rosie, it would also be nice to create a good working relationship
with the Neighbourhood Centre and Hungerford Community Centre. Up until
recently I just thought Wicklea was for teenagers - I had no idea of the size
or facilities inside the building.
Angela has brough up a very interesting proposal - Places like The Southville
Centre, The Park, Downend Folk House and Barton Hill Settlement are a massive
link within the community - a huge part of their success is the active
involvement of local community members who volunteer in various ways.
If these places can attract involvement from the local residences im certain
Brislington can as well.
We're still pushing the Council hard about Wicklea as Brislington needs its community space! One thing I'd like to see at Wicklea is the overgrown space to the back re-instated as allotments, the produce from which could fuel cookery teaching to families. Not about lecturing people on how to eat, but empowering people to realise that good cooking doesn't have to involve loads of time, money or ingredients. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/01/foodanddrink.oliver for this excellent review of the new Jamie Oliver series.
I have been thinking a lot about the space at the back of wicklea. I really would like to pursue this but just will not have any spare time this year. I am currently on a Learn To Teach course run by the WEA. I hope to use this to enhance my skills within the area of growing food/ community green food initiatives (the course will finish in December). The main advatge that Wicklea obviously has is the huge potential for growing its own food. Wicklea is ideal for food growing and cooking! I have taken part in a teenage cookery project that ended up with them cooking and serving and evening meal to paying customers it was superb! Idea's going around my head are focused on the growing of food including scrub clearance, building high-raised beds for those who find it difficult to bend low, composting, acquiring tools, tool storage, polytunnel/greenhouse. Where to find young people to work alongside older members of the community? Family focused food growing - I do have a rough scheme for this as I am hoping to start this at the farm in the spring. Food growing with enthusiasm about recipes and how to use the food grown (I find that quite a lot of our volunteers at the farm don't even know how to cook what we grow or how it tastes! I am trying where I can to change this). One of my concerns is that of cash. I will try and look at the BCP form for projects this week but with the time spent on APAG and homework I am uncertain that I will make a comprehensive bid. The project will need start up money and hopefully wages?? This is not my strong area but I realise it would be in our best interests to be aware of current funding opportunities. I did once have the great opportunity of being part of OrganicLea a project not disimimar to this. See http://www.organiclea.org.uk They turned around a green space with very small start up costs within a few years. So its not impossible if you have enough people who are happy to work as volunteers. One of the very successful things we have been doing at the farm this year is corporate challenges. Many groups ie Insolvency and AXA have come to the farm and completed quite large projects for us. They also bring some money with them for materials. Perhaps this would be a good way forward to get half of the land cleared and veggie beds built? It would be good to link with any other Brislington parties interested in working on this. I'd definitely like to be part of it, possibly even taking a lead role, but as its essential to me to be Mum to Natty(2) and Xavi (5) while they are still so little I cannot commit to full-time in the immediate future.
I've just been speaking to Ray Bishop who's the site rep for Talbot Road
alotments. There are 74 people on his waiting list at the moment so there
might be some potential to get them involved. Before making contact with
people on his list Ray would like to size up the land we're talking about, what
sort of state it's currently in, i.e. does it need heavy equipment to fell
trees, scrub clearance etc. How about holding a site visit for interested
parties, followed by a get together/planning session in Wicklea?
first of all, we're trying to ascertain the status of the land. it's about
an acre, behind the games court at wicklea. very overgrown and would need
scrub clearance. we've done a couple of site visits so far, but want to do
another in late november once the greenery dies back a bit to see exactly
what kind of features are in there.
the first step is to get the city to agree to reinstatement. that process
is in hand as I've compiled oral history, archaeological evidence and
historic map evidence to show the land has been used for growing food since
the mid-19th century to 2000. however, the land was never officially
designated as allotments (despite being marked as such on the 1930s land
use maps) and is in the care of central support services.
once we get through that process we can talk about allotment planning. i
know that talbot road is really popular with people on the waiting list,
but there's the brooklea allotment site, too. as we want to focus on the
wicklea grounds as a real community garden - to grow food for use in
wicklea itself and possibly for sale within brislington to get the older
people who use wicklea to run gardening courses for young people - i'm a
little wary of jumping the gun and linking with talbot road too early.
obviously, the community needs to be involved in determining its future,
but out of the brislington action plan we're keen to develop a resource
that benefits everyone.
once i have any more news about change of use, i'll post it to the forum.
Unfortunately I just found out the Allotments Regeneration Initiative has closed! However the page seems to have some good links re funding if you need any: http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/grants/grant-schemes.html This may be useful: http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/library/ Good luck all Mark >>> AAPiccini <A.A.Piccini@bristol.ac.uk> 14/10/2008 10:05 >>> first of all, we're trying to ascertain the status of the land. it's about an acre, behind the games court at wicklea. very overgrown and would need scrub clearance. we've done a couple of site visits so far, but want to do another in late november once the greenery dies back a bit to see exactly what kind of features are in there. the first step is to get the city to agree to reinstatement. that process is in hand as I've compiled oral history, archaeological evidence and historic map evidence to show the land has been used for growing food since the mid-19th century to 2000. however, the land was never officially designated as allotments (despite being marked as such on the 1930s land use maps) and is in the care of central support services. once we get through that process we can talk about allotment planning. i know that talbot road is really popular with people on the waiting list, but there's the brooklea allotment site, too. as we want to focus on the wicklea grounds as a real community garden - to grow food for use in wicklea itself and possibly for sale within brislington to get the older people who use wicklea to run gardening courses for young people - i'm a little wary of jumping the gun and linking with talbot road too early. obviously, the community needs to be involved in determining its future, but out of the brislington action plan we're keen to develop a resource that benefits everyone. once i have any more news about change of use, i'll post it to the forum.