September 2015 Newsletter

Welcome to the September edition of the Town Team and BID Newsletter. Please see below for our current activities and plans. For details of the past year's activities, please click here to view our annual report for 2014/15.

Priorities for the forthcoming year 2015/16 (Year 3 of the BID)
Each year we arrange brainstorming sessions in Bedminster's three key shopping streets. These are held with local businesses and in the specialist sub-groups that meet monthly (ie marketing and built environment). With too many ideas to be able to fund, the board meets each September to prioritise the best initiatives. We aim to bring forward nearly all of the projects listed below over the next twelve months.

  • Built Environment:
    • Hanging baskets
    • Gateway fund (art/greening)
    • Shop front improvements fund
    • Metal sculptures on North Street
    • Artwork in upper East Street windows (e.g. the East Street photo project)
    • Creative Meanwhile - to encourage creative users/landlords to the area
    • Gate on North Street - turn into pocket park
    • Chess table and chairs (probably concrete)
       
  • Marketing, Promotion, Arts and Culture:
    • Christmas Lights 2015
    • Winter Lantern Parade
    • Website integration
    • Remembrance Week - a car poppy on every bollard on East Street
    • Upfest 2016
    • Street art tours
    • Plaster annual retainer
    • On The Run - 3 or 4 events, including cabaret/variety and perhaps a Christmas special
    • Skills Week
    • Pub Crawl - using Desperate Men or actors to tell gruesome/spooky history/stories in a trail of the pubs over Halloween
    • Buskers - make Bedminster a busker-friendly area, and possibly sponsor on Friday or Saturday lunchtimes on East Street
    • BEDLAM - celebrating the weird/odd (think Lee Evans dancing in biscuit tins!) in an X-Factor audition show timed for April 1st
    • Princess Caraboo - Mill Square, historical walking trail, art etc.
    • History Walking Map - develop ideas further
  • Crime:
    • Radios
       
  • East Street:
    • Mill Square
    • East Street Summer Fayre
    • Celebrate Mexican Day of the Dead Festival as a hook into Halloween
    • Christmas Fair and Market - including reindeers, barber shop singers, Salvation Army etc.
    • Santa's Grotto - manned by local groups and charities to raise funds
       
  • Lower North Street:
    • Open up the garden which runs up to the church
    • Cycle racks - possibly on pavement build outs (paid for by BCC or GBCP)
    • Make Sunday Special
       
  • Upper North Street:
    • Pop up shops in containers for Christmas 2016 - possibly on North Street Green to generate publicity/visitors
    • Town Team to run Christmas Fair 2015 (in consultation with North Street businesses)
    • Provide power on North Street Green so it can be used for events in the future and also for the Christmas lights
       
  • West Street:
    • CCTV for West Street (contribution)
    • Maintenance of the West Street planters
    • Two further planters and maintenance


Current Marketing Activities

  • BS3T Guide: We have printed 20,000 copies of the BS3T map guide, and with the help of Destination Bristol, are ensuring it is available in all key tourist points from the city to the airport (please click here to view if you haven't already seen it).
     
  • Musicians On The Run / East Street Summer Fayre - Saturday 19th September: We have a bumper day of events in Bedminster next Saturday with Best of Bedminster returning to Dean Lane Skate Park, East Street Summer Fayre coming to East Street throughout the day, and 15 venues hosting 20 musicians from 3pm - 6pm for Musicians On The Run. Please do view and share the Facebook events here: www.facebook.com/events/1662196107400244/   
    www.facebook.com/events/499881650177104/
     
  • Winter Lantern Parade - Saturday 12th December: The organising committee are looking to extend the lantern parade this year to involve all the businesses and traders in the area, whether that be by decorating your windows with lanterns, getting together in a group to make a lantern and join the parade, donating some cash towards the fund that makes it happen each year, volunteering to steward... everything is welcome! We are expecting over 3000 people on the streets of Bedminster from 3pm, so if we can extend this to make a huge day of activities, it would be fantastic for the area.
     
  • Website: If you have any news from your business or the area, please do send it over (email marketing@bedminster.org.uk) so we can share it on our social media channels and via our website (www.bedminster.org.uk)


Other News

  • Access Survey: Recently, the Bedminster Town Team and the Greater BedminsterPartnership commissioned a study of access issues along the stretch from BedminsterBridge to Greville Smyth Park. The study picked up many positive features, but also highlighted some areas for improvement - including various obstructions on the pavement, a lack of seating in some areas and broken pavements. Some of these issues are the responsibility of Bristol City Council and we have already started to talk to them about improvements. Many of the issues, however, are down to individual businesses - for example, hazardous obstacles outside one shop will have negative implications for neighbouring businesses. The Town Team wants to make Bedminster the most attractive and accessible business district in Bristol. We can only do it with your help. If you would like to make any comments about this or find out more about the report, please contact george@towncentred.com
     
  • Invitation to acta Theatre Celebrations: The nice people at local theatre group 'acta' are celebrating 30 years in Bedminster, and would love you to join them - please see their invitation below: 

    "Dear businesses of Bedminster, 
    A big hello from the acta community theatre team. We are an educational arts charity and are situated between Gaywood House surgery and South St Park. 
    Our home, the acta centre has recently undergone a big refurbishment and extension, which has given us more space for events and also a theatre bar (supplied with goodies from Margot May!) 
    This year we are celebrating the organisation's 30th year! As such, we would love to invite the local businesses around us to see a very special show which has been created to celebrate our birthday and our new building. 
    The show is called 'TheNow' and was created by performers from Bedminster and across Bristol. It is a comic show which takes a wry and light-hearted look at the world of 2015 and the last 30 years. If you're nostalgic for big hair and Wham T-shirts, frustrated at dealing with modern technology, or just fancy a fun night out (and a nose at the new building) please email info@acta-bristol.com or call Kathryn on 0117 9532448 to reserve your tickets.
    Dates - September 23, 24, 29, 30 & October 1. All performances start at 7.30pm.
    Watch the trailer for 'TheNow' here.
    Best wishes,
    Kathryn Harris, Programme Assistant at acta (www.acta-bristol.com)"
     
  • Do You Need Part Time Staff? We have been asked by Bristol University graduates to mention the launch of a business that aims to connect Bristol students with local jobs whilst they are at university. The website is www.wurkrs.com, it is completely free for both students and employers, and it could be a very useful tool for businesses in theBedminster area. The broad idea is that as a university student, you often have both a lot of spare time and not much money! There is currently no easy way of finding temporary, one-off or part-time work when you want it. We aim to fulfil this need with Wurkrs. The idea is that businesses in the Bedminster area can very simply post whenever they have a job vacancy or need an extra pair of hands. They then have access to a large pool of reliable, hardworking and cheap local university students to fill those vacancies.