Join Ardagh Community Trust on Saturday 7th September 2019, 1-3pm at the Cafe on the Common for the first "OUR ARDAGH" event. Feed in your ideas and find out how you can get involved - ALL WELCOME!
You are warmly invited to join Ardagh Community Trust to celebrate achievement of the Community Asset Transfer for the Ardagh site, find out all the latest news & feed in your ideas to help shape plans for the future at our upcoming open afternoon on Saturday 7th September 2019 from 1-3pm at the Cafe on the Common.
We will be starting work to transform the west-end of the pavilion building into our new year-round community hub incorporating the Cafe on the Common in September, and beginning to make plans for the longer term future of the site - including sports courts, public spaces and gardens.
Come along to this informal afternoon open session and input your views - let us know how you would like to see the site used in the future, the kinds of activities you would like to take part in, and how you think the site can be developed to meet the needs of the widest range of local people possible. Would you like to see improved play facilities? Better sports facilities? Would you like to take part in group activities? Get involved in volunteering?
Please come & join Trustees, Staff and Volunteers to celebrate the achievement of the Community Asset Transfer for the Ardagh site and find out more about how you can feed in your ideas, get involved in activities and support Ardagh Community Trust in our next, exciting stage of development.
Saturday 7th September 2019, 1-3pm at the Cafe on the Common, The Ardagh.
ALL WELCOME!
We will be starting work to transform the west-end of the pavilion building into our new year-round community hub incorporating the Cafe on the Common in September, and beginning to make plans for the longer term future of the site - including sports courts, public spaces and gardens.
Come along to this informal afternoon open session and input your views - let us know how you would like to see the site used in the future, the kinds of activities you would like to take part in, and how you think the site can be developed to meet the needs of the widest range of local people possible. Would you like to see improved play facilities? Better sports facilities? Would you like to take part in group activities? Get involved in volunteering?
Please come & join Trustees, Staff and Volunteers to celebrate the achievement of the Community Asset Transfer for the Ardagh site and find out more about how you can feed in your ideas, get involved in activities and support Ardagh Community Trust in our next, exciting stage of development.
Saturday 7th September 2019, 1-3pm at the Cafe on the Common, The Ardagh.
ALL WELCOME!
11 July 2019 The future is bright! Ardagh Community Trust secures a sustainable, community-led future for the Ardagh site in the centre of Horfield Common.
Ardagh Community Trust is celebrating the achievement of a community asset transfer lease for the Ardagh site which signals the start of a bright new future for this much-loved public asset under community management!
Ardagh Community Trust is a charity set up by local people to take on responsibility for community management of the Ardagh in the centre of Horfield Common following more than 9 years community-led activity to develop a vision for the future of the site as a public asset – and secure the funding needed to achieve it. A community asset transfer lease has now been signed between ACT and Bristol City Council which gives the trust responsibility for management of the Ardagh site through a 35-year lease. This will enable the charity to raise further funding to improve the quality and availability of facilities at the site, to improve the condition of existing facilities and to ensure that this much-loved public facility remains available & accessible to all into the future. The successful achievement of the CAT lease is significant milestone in the charity’s development and will enable the group to proceed with plans developed by the local community to ensure that the site is accessible to all, and that it serves the needs of the widest range of local people possible.
ACT grew out of a campaign by the Friends of Horfield Common begun in 2010 when the Ardagh site was threatened with disposal for development as part of the citywide Area Green Space Plan proposals. The site had been removed by BCC’s sports strategy and while it was being used by a very small number of members of a private sports club, had fallen into disrepair and was considered to be underused, and therefore not sustainable by the local authority.
Since 2010 local residents have worked together to find out how the community would like to see the site better used, developed plans – working in partnership with a wide-range of local, citywide and national groups to ensure that these are robust - and secured the funding necessary to achieve their ambitious plans. The plans have been informed by thousands of local people throughout this time with priorities including working to the highest environmental standards possible, ensuring accessibility for all is central, increasing facilities for people of all ages, including play facilities for children and young people and co-creation & partnership working with other groups across the area high on the agenda.
The group set up a community café in a previously disused external goods yard at the Ardagh in 2015, to begin to reanimate the site and demonstrate its value to the local community. Since then, regeneration of the site has begun in earnest with hundreds of local volunteers involved in a range of projects and activities which help to improve the facilities, and encourage increased numbers of local residents to use and enjoy this fantastic public facility.
Ardagh Community Trust has secured funding through Power To Change’s Community Business Fund, which will enable them to renovate part of the currently inaccessible and dilapidated pavilion building at the site to create a new, year-round café and community hub facility including new, fully accessible public toilets and a changing places facility .
The charity is continuing to work with Bristol City Council and other partners including Sport England to develop plans for improved formal sports and informal play facilities at the site in response to need in the local area – specifically for accessible play facilities for children and young people. Additionally, the group are seeking funding to improve the formal gardens at the site and to bring these back into full use as public gardens.
Ardagh Community Trust is run by volunteers, and the charity is currently recruiting new Trustees who can help the charity to achieve its aims for the next exciting phase in its development. If you would like to get involved, please contact [email protected] for further information. On Sat 7th September 2019, Ardagh Community Trust invites you to join Trustees, Staff & Volunteers to celebrate the achievement of a community asset transfer lease for the Ardagh site and to contribute your ideas and feedback into planning for a bright, community-led & managed future for this much-loved public asset.
Find out more about Ardagh Community Trust, how you can get involved and the drop-in event on Sat 7th September from 1pm-4pm at http://www.theardagh.com
For further information, please contact:
Ardagh Community Trust, The Ardagh, Horfield Common, Bristol BS6 7YL/[email protected]