Kingsdown Conservation Group

On Tuesday the 2^nd March, at 7.00 p.m. there is a Neighbourhood Forum for the Cabot and Clifton Neighbourhood Partnership at the Pavilion Harbourside.

The Council has divided Bristol into 14 Neighbourhood Partnerships. Kingsdown is part of the Cabot, Clifton and Clifton East Wards Neighbourhood Partnership; that is 27,000 people.

In April this year, the Council says that it will devolve £11m to the 16 Neighbourhood Partnerships to give local people more say in how their money is spent.

The principal idea is to give residents a greater say in their area in how thee Council delivers its services in their area. The Council hopes that it will benefit from local knowledge to meet local needs more effectively and effectively.

Some councils have had Neighbourhood Partnerships for years. Leeds has 10 year’s experience, Bradford 20 and Newcastle, over 30.

The Neighbourhood Partnership’s councillors will decide how to spend the Partnership’s share of the devolved budget, informed by the local community.

Phase 1 of the devolved services includes budgets for highway maintenance, street cleaning and mini-recycling sites, small traffic schemes, parks and green spaces and a sum for projects specific to the Partnership.

The March meeting will be chaired by Councillor Barbara Janke; our two ward councillors, Mark Wright and Alex Woodman will be there.

Thursday the 18^th March, is the date of Kingsdown Conservation Group’s annual general meeting. It will start at 7.30 p.m. in the upper room in the Ark, Cotham Road South. The committee will distribute AGM notices nearer the date.

The next committee meeting will be on Thursday the 4th March. If you wish to meet the committee or bring any matters to their attention, please contact the secretary@kingsdown.org.uk.

Many of you know that there are a lot of photos on our Flickr site, which you can reach via the link on the right, or by following this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingsdown/ They’ve been very popular, and Flickr has recorded over 30,000 individual ‘views’. However, the collection is a bit limited, because photos have to be emailed in to us.

To get round this, and make it easier for people to contribute, we also set up a Flickr group, to which anyone with a Flickr account, free or paid, can contribute freely. It’s at

http://www.flickr.com/groups/kingsdownconservationgroup/

Now that more people in the area have accounts, can I ask them to join the group and look through their photos for those that could be of interest to others?

Thanks to Penny Leaver Green for the suggestion, and for the photos she has recently put in the group photo pool.

Yet again, Santa Claus picked Kingsdown for the first stop on his world-wide present-delivery round because there were no naughty children in the area. In defiance of all health and safety rules, he landed on the roof of 12, Kingsdown Parade with a large sledge and a full team of reindeer. After listening to the traditional carols, sung by a crowd of fairly merry local residents, he lowered his sack of presents before flying back off to Lapland.

Mr Claus said “I’ve been coming here for 25 years now, and all that time people have been telling me there will soon be a Residents’ Parking Scheme but nothing seems to happen so I just stick the sledge on the roof and hope for the best. Maye next year……?”. Don’t count on it, Santa.

More photos of the carol-singing here

Thanks to Annie Yerbury for the following:

I have just walked home passing Senate House.  To my surprise I found a small Farmers Market on the pavement outside of Senate House and the University Gym, selling wonderful cheese, meat, preserves, pies etc

I had no idea this existed.

It takes place on the second Tuesday of every month from 9.30 till 2pm ish.  It has been running for all of this year without any publicity, the market sellers would really appreciate some more custom.  As it is so near I do hope we can all pop along and help to keep them busy.

I bought some wonderful goat’s cheese and can’t wait to eat it!

Happy Christmas to everyone
Annie Yerbury

Vicky Wright from St Matthew’s writes to us as follows:

Get Creative this Christmas!

Saturday 12th December – drop in between 9.30-12.30

Craft Activities and Festive Refreshments

Take home inspiration and whatever you make!

Adults £5  Children £2

Vicky Wright
Community Minister
stmatthews-bristol.org.uk

vicky.wright@bristol.anglican.org
07760 166113

The Moving Story of Kingsdown is now a book! There is a copy in the pub (the Kingsdown Wine Vaults opposite the noticeboard) if you want to have a look and you can buy one if you’re quick.

If there are none left in the pub you can buy one online.

The local police have been refreshing their website, and you can now find mugshots and contact details for all the local team, plus news, maps of crimes, details of the regular PACT meetings, how to sign up for the local newsletter, current local priorities (nuisance cycling, dog fouling, fly-tipping by students) and more.

Visit the Kingsdown police beat website.

Most KCG members will be aware that the City Council has produced several proposals over the last 20 years, variously referred to as Controlled Parking Zones, Resident’s Parking, Permit Parking, and no doubt several other designations. As the KCG membership was quite strongly divided on the principle of whether there should be some kind of parking scheme for Kingsdown, the Committee maintained a neutral stance on that specific point. However, once the Council decided that some kind of scheme would be introduced, the Committee felt that it was important to ensure that as many residents as possible were able to study, analyse and comment on the detail of the current proposals.

Several residents have been considering the Council’s latest suggestions, and the Committee has invited those known to it to make their thoughts available to a wider audience through the website. We do not wish to start, or encourage, campaigning, but we do want to promote balanced discussion so that residents can make an informed contribution to the more formal consultation which we understand is planned by the Council. We realise that to some extent we are taking a risk, as we do not have the resources to support an extended discussion or to edit contributions significantly. However, we are confident that contributors will maintain a balanced and tolerant approach. Anyone who is happy to supply their contact details is free to comment on the contributions via the ‘Comment’ facility below this item.

Here, then, are two contributions which we have received to date.

David Mellor (52 Kingsdown Parade): I am the contact for a group of Kingsdown residents – largely on Kingsdown Parade because KP is badly affected by current proposals.  The attached note sets out our position, our intention being to raise awareness and to work for a scheme which doesn’t seriously disadvantage some (particularly those on KP without garages).

David’s note can be downloaded here: David Mellor – Letter to residents 14.11.09.

Professor David Thomas, Chair of the Prior’s Close Residents’ Association, has also produced a discussion paper, which can be downloaded here: David Thomas – Kingsdown RPZ discussion doc