Some quick notes on the Streets discussions for reference:

• We *think* we know what the situation is, but do we? Lots of talk about ‘too many cars’ but we don’t really know how many, owned by who, why, etc. etc.
• Get knowledge of area and situation through a survey – door to door, online, in the shops
• Leads to meetings and discussions to explore the topic and frame the situation in a reasonable way (ie not just ‘give up cars’, but ‘we all want to use our streets’)
• Start practically mapping the streets to get an idea of what can and can’t be done
• Need community buy-in to get formal council support (which will be vital to any significant change)
• There are alternatives to car ownership – city car clubs, neighbourhood hire schemes
• Need to find benefits for individuals to give up their cars, not just demonise them

The ‘Streets’ ‘group’ has struggled to find a path to finding its feet, and this may be a way to mix small actions with getting the neighbourhood’s input while finding out more about Montpelier. In a parallel group, the ‘energy’ group were interested in doing an energy survey to find out how much energy the neighbourhood is using – maybe we do a big survey in 2011?

Here is Pete’s presentation:

The first Community Tree Planting day will be Saturday 13 November with trees kindly provided by the Woodland Trust.  Please download and print this poster and put up in your window, noticeboard or local shop.  All welcome: meet in Picton Square (outside Bells) at 10.30 for a morning’s clearing, digging and planting.

If you can’t make this community tree planting day, our next one will be on the weekend of 4/5 December, with trees kindly provided by the Forest of Avon Trust.  Further volunteer workdays are being run to build the community planting area in Montpelier Park on November 16 and 20.  Hope to see you soon!

Present: Sue, David, Karen, Claudia, Rachel,  Shiona

Free Trees – 50 orders so far, closing date 19 Nov.  Delivery and distribution on Sat 4 Dec.  Engagement and fundraising activities to include mince pies, cakes, spiced tea, plant sale, creating bird feeders, tree planting in planters. Planning meeting for this on Monday 29 November.

ACTION: Shiona to create ‘subscription form’ and email to UG list along with flyer pdf file.

ACTION: All knock on doors with subscription form to get neighbours’ orders on the spot.  Could pair up to do this, making it more sociable.

ACTION: All to approach ‘market stall’ in Picton Square if seen to let them know about distribution date to avoid clashing.

Community Tree Planting – 2 deliveries, 2 planting days.  First Saturday 13 November, second 4/5 December.  First day will be with donations from the Woodland Trust, with unknown number (of hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, oak, rowan and birch) and to go into known ownership sites.  Second with donations from Forest of Avon Trust, ordered specifically for each site, and can include Station Path, Rainbow Bridge (both sides), Picton Square.

Issue with Woodland Trust is unknown number of hedges vs large trees.  Hedges at 30cm distance apart are relatively easy to find planting sites; 105 oak trees would not be! Four potential sites under negotiation for first planting day: Apsley House, Kwik Fit, Scrapstore and Montpelier Park.

ACTION: Claudia to continue liasing with Apsley House to identify how many and which type of tree, what support they want/need from community, when is good to receive delivery.

ACTION: Sue/Shiona to scope out Kwik Fit substrate and potentially negotiate for compost cost.

ACTION: Rachel to liase with Scrapstore to agree planting plan.  David to inform Ivy Church.

ACTION: Shiona to chase BCC agreement for Montpelier Park planting.

ACTION: David to contact St Barnabas’ school, Shiona to contact Lucy re allotments, Shiona to contact Montpelier Industrial Estate, Rachel to contact Health Centre at same time as putting up posters.

ACTION: Karen, Shiona and Rachel to bake for volunteers on 13 Nov.

ACTION: Shiona to write a blog piece detailing planting event, to include poster.

ACTION: Shiona to email Steve with wording for community tree planting poster.

ACTION: David to register planting event with Woodland Trust.

ACTION: All to forward details of free trees and community planting events to all known local/school newsletters.

Montpelier Park – BTCV agreed to take on project and running workdays on 16 and 20 November.  Building planters, filling and planting, and details of volunteers needed to follow.

Meeting closed 8.45.

Autumn is now officially with us, we’re moving back into gear after summer’s growing, camping, walking, and generally not being indoors-ing.

The Urban Greening group are having their next meeting soon, we’re holding a big open event in November to catch up on the projects’ work and find more things to do, we’re giving hundreds of trees away to Montpelier households, Bristol Green Doors have written up their amazing event, we’re doing a showing of ‘The Yes Men Save the World’ and more… read on…

Urban Greening Meeting: 14/10/10
Get your diaries out for the Urban Greening’s Autumn meeting on October 14th, 20:00 – 22:00
The Autumn meeting will be Thursday October 14, 8-10pm in the old Fairfield School.  Hope you can come!  At the moment, this will be discussing group progress and how to keep momentum going.
Read more about the Urban Greening meeting

Free Tree Giveaway: advance notice
The Urban Greening group are delighted to have joined forces with a local tree planting fund and will shortly be distributing FREE TREES to Montpelier households. A mix of fruit and native trees will be available to chose from.
Read more about the Free Tree Giveaway

Film showing: The Yes Men Fix the World
In order to lighten the load on the day all the government cuts are announced (20th October) and the fascinating Big Society saga takes another twist in its tail, we’re going to show a great film about two keen inspired young activists, who are busy hacking corporations’ tidy varnished facias.Yes that’s right – we’re showing
Read more about The Yes Men Fix The World film showing

Bristol Green Doors event write up
It is now two weeks since the first Bristol Green Doors open homes event and after a lot of very, very hard work Kate and I have both had a chance to relax and reflect. So how was it? Well basically it was great and we want to do another one next year! Here are a few thoughts and an update so you appreciate where we are at.
Read more about the Bristol Green Doors event

Well done you Beanfeast-ers!
On behalf of the organising group I just wanted to say a huge thank you for giving up your time on Saturday to help the Bean Feast run smoothly and keep the happy vibes going.  It was a really lovely day and that is in no small measure down to you.  We certainly couldn’t have done it without your generosity!
Read more about the Beanfeast-ers thank you

Make your home an eco-home course
Following Bristol Green Doors is a timely 6 week course entitled: ‘Make your home an eco home.’ This aims to demystify what it takes to start living more sustainably in your house.
Where Green Doors inspires, we hope to get people on the journey themselves! Book now – it starts on October 5th.
Read more about the Make your home and eco-home course

Wood buying in bulk, anyone?
Do you have a (efficient and clean) wood burning stove? Would you be interested in being part of a group bulk-buying wood in Montpelier? Jo has kindly offered to co-ordinate a bulk wood purchase from a recommended wood provider (approx price £85 per metric cubic tonne), but only if there is significant interest.
Read more about buying wood in bulk

Can you help research Bristol’s Sustainability history?
Our friends over at The Schumacher Institute have got some cash to document Bristol’s history of Sustainability. They are looking for some volunteers to help out. Can you get involved?
Read more about the Sustainability research

Admin meeting minutes
The TT Montpelier admin group meet every month to discuss exciting things like when to hold events, what the website does and doesn’t do, who owes who want money, etc. etc.
Read the admin group’s meeting notes from October 2010

We will send out a special announcement email to the main Transition Montpelier mailing list with more details in the next few weeks, inviting applications for trees.

We will also be designing some posters to put up around the neighbourhood, and trying to let as many people as possible know about the scheme. We would greatly appreciate any help you could offer – please leave a comment here.

Hi Everyone,

On behalf of the organising group I just wanted to say a huge thank you for giving up your time on Saturday to help the Bean Feast run smoothly and keep the happy vibes going.  It was a really lovely day and that is in no small measure down to you.  We certainly couldn’t have done it without your generosity!

If you have any comments, either things you thought went well or things that could be done better, please let us know.  If you’ve heard anyone else raving or ranting about it, please pass on what they’re saying.  It’s always a learning process and feedback is really important.  We have a debrief meeting tomorrow (Thurs) at 7pm in the Old England – if you’d like to come along you’d be most welcome.

Also, any great photos you’ve got, send them on over!

We hope you enjoyed the day and many thanks again,
Sally and the Bean Feast Team
xx

Beanfeast in local news

Download Evening Post Article 21sept2010

This phase is expected to take about 8 weeks, during which the playground will still be accessible, but the ball court will not.  For those living next to the park it will clearly be unpleasant to be next to a construction site, and the contractors have committed to working co-operatively with neighbours wherever possible.  They will need to ensure parking doesn’t obstruct plant entering, but machinery will not operate before 8.30am, and is unlikely to operate on weekends.

Two further phases of work are dependent on two further funding applications; to SITA Trust for the ball court, and Biffaward for the spectator seating.  We have been accepted through to their funding boards and hope to hear from them both by November. Funding searches for the skateable space in the corner have not been started (about £15k); if you have any ideas for where we could look that would be great!  The Council have also just sent the landowner of the strip across the middle of the park an offer for his land, so hopefully all the park will shortly come into community ownership.

There will be an info board at Saturday’s Beanfeast in the park with a large map of the different phases and if we can get hold of a key, we hope to keep the phase plan on the noticeboard in the Park, so you can see it even if you can’t make Saturday.

Ways to take part include:
performance (music, spoken word, walkabout)
making decorations
hosting a craft stall
running a skills sharing workshop
sharing your homegrown produce
being a candidate for Montpelier Mayor or Queen Bean in the mock elections
helping to run silly games and craft activities
help to organise a ‘heritage lunch’ for older residents of Montpelier

On the day, we need volunteers to help with stewarding, putting up decorations, assisting with cake/bean/tea stalls and clearing up afterwards.

If you’re able to join this happy team, please get in touch!  You can see the ‘get involved’ flyer here
Sally Jenkins
Event Coordinator
montpelierbeanfeast@yahoo.co.uk
07866 748193

About the event
This community street festival is a resurrection of an annual event from the eighteenth century, which historical accounts say originally featured mock elections of a Mayor and Sheriff, ‘delighted spectators’ and ‘various high jinks’. It is now a celebration of local heritage, local harvest and local genius and features music, mock elections, crafts workshops and procession, local produce exchange, ‘homemade’ stalls and lots of neighbours getting to know each other.
The event takes place in St Andrews Road and Montpelier Park. It is free to attend, although donations towards costs are much appreciated.  All organisers are unpaid volunteers from the local area.

Can you help out with this year's Bean Feast? We need lots of people to make it a success!

A broad range of homes will be showcased in over a dozen neighbourhoods such as Montpelier, Easton, Redland and Fishponds where visitors will be able to see and discuss the changes, refurbishments and renewable installations with the householders and learn from their experiences. These homes will be clustered around hubs such community centres or libraries with publicity, displays, energy advice and workshops.

Homes to be featured include some of the homes on the Refit West scheme, super green refurbished student accomodation, a Montpelier house with hemp and lime walls, housing association flats in Redland and state of the art new builds. There will be something for everyone.

Huge support is gathering for the event which came about partly due to a meeting set up by Transition Montpelier at the Fairfield Resource Centre in February. A significant collection of partners have now come together to make the event happening including the City Council, the EnergySaving Trust and Transition Bristol.

Bristol Green Doors is set to become a major feature of the city’s calendar. There is a website www.bristolgreendoors.org which has lots of information including a page for householders who may be interested in taking part. COULD THIS BE YOU AND YOUR HOME? Please take a look and pass the information on to anyone who you think may be interested.

For more on Transtion Montpelier Energy Group click here