All posts in the topic Welcome and introductions (Short link)
Summary
- There are 12 posts — by 11 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Ali Bevan at 2007 Jun 17 00:13 UTC
Welcome to the new Greater Bedminster neighbourhood forum!
You are now able to post messages, reply to comments that other people make and
start new discussion topics.
My name is Carol Hayward and I am the current forum manager. I live in
Southville and have lived here for around 3 out of my 4 years working in
Bristol (had a short stint in Brislington and nine months in Cheltenham).
I work for Bristol City Council where I am responsible for consultation and
participation activities (including managing the e-petitions website) so may
contribute to this forum in both a personal and a work capacity.
Any problems or queries with the forum, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Please introduce yourselves and let's get the conversation started.
On Mar 12, 2007, at 5:09 AM, Carol Hayward wrote:
> Any problems or queries with the forum, please don't hesitate to
> contact me.
>
> Please introduce yourselves and let's get the conversation started.
Welcome!
My name is Tim Erickson, I actually live in St. Paul, Minnesota -
which is a long ways from Bristol, but I've been to Bristol a number
of times and really love it there.
I also happen to work for E-Democracy.Org, the site where this forum
is being hosted and will be providing some level of technical support
to this forum, in particular as it launches.
I'm jumping in early to introduce myself, but also to suggest that if
anyone tried to post a message today - and did not see it come
through, to please try again. We might have been experiencing some
opening day - jitters. There are two ways of posting a message to the
forum.
Either, send your message via email to:
<email obscured>
(be sure that you address your email correctly, hitting the
"Reply" button
alone will not work. Using "Reply to All" should work.)
Or, you can post via the web site:
Welcome & Introductions
http://forums.e-democracy.org/topic/154141
South Bristol Pool
http://forums.e-democracy.org/topic/154142
I look forward to reading your introductions.
Best wishes,
Tim Erickson
E-Democracy.Org
Hi,
I'm Ben Barker and I'm chair of the Southville Community Development
Association. I've lived in Southville since the early 80s.
Southville CDA has been invited to sign up to the new Bristol as a Green
Capital in Europe project. You may have heard of it. It's sponsored by
the city council and others. We're currently deciding if we should sign up
or not.
On one side, the aspirations of the Green Capital certainly overlap strongly
with our own hopes around developing a more sustainable Southville, not to
mention Ashton and Bedminster. The counter arguement is that the Green
Capital approach is little more than political grandstanding: sound and fury
signifying nothing. What do you think we should do?
Cheers, Ben.
Hi, I'm Ali Bevan. I sit on lots of different committees in the Bedminster /
Southville area, including Bedminster Area Housing Committee and Bristol's
Housing Management Board.
I am currently involved in the setting up of an Antisocial Behaviour support
line, run by Tenants to help those suffering the effects of ASB.
I strongly feel much more could be done for Youth in our area as this may
lessen some ASB carried out by groups, due to boredom, I would like to see some
space for an intergenerational area with a range of activities to suit all age
groups.
(This has been done on the Bournville Estate, Weston-super-Mare, and makes the
best use of a relatively small piece of land, it incorporates a basketball
court, 3 small play areas for different age groups, a semi enclosed peace
garden, a bandstand - also used as a youth shelter, and lots of flower beds and
benches. It is called Conniston Green and it is valued by the local residents
on an estate which has seen its fair share of bad publicity about ASB, and is
not vandalised.)
Ali
Whatever the politics, there is growing momentum in making real
positive contributions to our environment, and these can be built on
and feed each other.
I'm a governor at Ashton Gate Primary (chair of buildings and finance
committee): the kids have really embraced the Polar Bear Challenge,
for example; we've started down the road to Eco School status, and
many of the parents are active in related issues, such as our
Gardening Group and an active interest in better/healthier school meals.
Perhaps publicizing these efforts and joining forces among schools
and their connected communities would just add to the momentum --
sharing ideas, experiences and resources?...?
Hi I'm Emma Winfield. I am in the process of setting up Transition City Bristol, to facilitate a community-owned process of awareness and inspiration for creating a sustainable, post-oil-dependent Bristol, based on a permaculture approach. More info on the process at www.transitionculture.org and specific Bristol info (early days) at www.transitioncitybristol.org, but the main thrust is relocalisation to meet all the city's needs and use all the city's 'waste' as a resource. I live in Ashton and spend my time promoting and sharing permaculture approaches to the issues of sustainability in our current lives. I'm particularly interested in encouraging creative urban sustainability and countering any sense of "run away to the country or give up now"! I prefer to help people find out more about any issue, so they can choose to make informed changes rather than be told what they 'should' do. Permaculture specifically encourages people to take an ethical stance which then underpins their decisions. As far as this forum goes, I recently left Bristol City Council's Community Development team where I was working for a short time as an Investement & Grants officer, and am interested to find out if this forum is a Council-down talking shop or a local resource to see what creative solutions we can come up with locally to make the area more inspiring to live in. As for Ben's comment about the "Green Capital" idea, it seems many 'sustainability' groups in Bristol have wondered the same, and the general consensus appears to be one of wariness, a kind of 'don't let the Council use our efforts and results as flags to wave to show Council progress, when their rhetoric doesn't follow through into policy & our outputs are often DESPITE the Council or in the face of Council oppostition / obstruction'. If you're interested in getting an overview of this, one way would be to join the Sustainable Redland's email group and read the back messages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/susredland Anyway, interested to see where this all goes ...
Oh help this is the new spam, but perhaps not.
11 messages in as many hours
I'm setting up a new box in outlook express to keep it in.
then I can react or compost it!
:)
All best
Stephen
My name is Charlie Bolton and I am one of the local councillors
I went to the launch of the green capital thing. I suspect it is a load of
greenwash, and will continue to suspect that until I see some cash or until I
see some substantial targets for business. The pledges for business - as I read
them - seemed unnecesarily vague to me.
I think the big advantage of the green capital idea is as a stick to beat the
council with - how can it be a green capital without having sustainable
transport/ fully insulated housing stock etc etc etc
Actually, you can do this regardless of whether or not you support it
I'm Mark Bradshaw one of the Councillors for Bedminster.
I'm also the Chair of the Greater Bedminster Community Partnership.
This online forum is a great opportunity to share views and comments in a
constructive way about how we can improve our community. I hope it encourages a
broader cross section of local people (or those with just an interest in
Greater Bedminster) to get involved in the various debates and requests for
views and information. You don't have to be a politican, think-tanker,
campaigner or activist to get involved and you're indeed very welcome!
Greater Bedminster is changing at a rapid pace and this is leading to new
challenges, conflicts and opportunities. GBCP was launched to help try to find
a consensual approach to addressing these.
Hi all - I'm John Holland, secretary of a group which calls itself 'The Ashton Alleygaters'. We're a bunch of very committed residents in the Ashton Gate area who've been successfull in getting a hefty grant from the Police to help pay for security gates at either end of the alleyway which runs behind our immediate streets. Having achieved our aim, we could 'pack up and head home'...but we've all agreed that we should continue to meet on a regular basis (The Coopers' Arms on Ashton Road is our preferred venue) - to offer help to other groups of residents where securing access is an issue - as well as turning our energies to other projects which promote neighbourliness and support the local community in our part of Bedminster. Addressing speeding, parking and generally promoting 'safer streets' are on the list of things we might address so we'll be interested in linking in with other developments. We're holding a get-together in our gardens on 1 April to celebrate our achievements over the last year and if any members of the Forum would like to join us, please let me know. Best wishes. John > From: <email obscured>> Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 08:35:54 -0500> To: <email obscured>> Subject: Re: [GB-Forum] Welcome and introductions> > On Mar 12, 2007, at 5:09 AM, Carol Hayward wrote:> > Any problems or queries with the forum, please don't hesitate to > > contact me.> >> > Please introduce yourselves and let's get the conversation started.> > Welcome!> > My name is Tim Erickson, I actually live in St. Paul, Minnesota - > which is a long ways from Bristol, but I've been to Bristol a number > of times and really love it there.> > I also happen to work for E-Democracy.Org, the site where this forum > is being hosted and will be providing some level of technical support > to this forum, in particular as it launches.> > I'm jumping in early to introduce myself, but also to suggest that if > anyone tried to post a message today - and did not see it come > through, to please try again. We might have been experiencing some > opening day - jitters. There are two ways of posting a message to the > forum.> > Either, send your message via email to:> > <email obscured>> > (be sure that you address your email correctly, hitting the > "Reply" button> alone will not work. Using "Reply to All" should work.)> > Or, you can post via the web site:> > Welcome & Introductions> http://forums.e-democracy.org/topic/154141> > South Bristol Pool> http://forums.e-democracy.org/topic/154142> > I look forward to reading your introductions.> > Best wishes,> > Tim Erickson> E-Democracy.Org> > Tim Erickson> Hamline Midway, St. Paul> More info: Info about Tim Erickson: http://forums.e-democracy.org/contacts/timerickson> > > This topic's messages may be viewed at:> http://forums.e-democracy.org/topic/154143> >
Hi everyone. I am Arabella Greatorex, owner of The Natural Nursery Shop on
North Street and Secretary of the North Street Trader's Association.
From the Trader's Association point, I would welcome any suggestions and
comments on the retail side of North Street and how we can/should serve the
local community. As some of you know, there are a number of threats to the
shops and retail units on and around North Street, including some of the
highest rents in Bristol, and increasing number of bars and cafes (very good
for bringing a new side to the street but instrumental in the increased rents)
and interest from big supermarket chains who are keen to move into the area.
If you have any comments, do drop me an email and I will make sure that it is
passed on the Traders.
From the shop side of things, we are keen to encourage a gentler, more green
method of parenting, particularly the use of cloth nappies to help reduce our
landfill. Bristol City Council estimate that it costs around £500,000 per year
to dispose of "disposable" nappies.
We are keen to work with other groups in the area to encourage environmentally
responsible parenting, so do get in touch if you have any ideas or
suggestions.
Hello New Forum Members,
Please feel free to use this thread and introduce yourselves!
Welcome to all of you.
Ali Bevan
Forum Manager