Residents Association Report No. 88
Dear Friends and Neighbours,
It is great that the traditional flower show will be able to return on Saturday 9th July which, hopefully, marks the end of two years we would like to forget. We have recently had three residents join our Frenchay Residents Association (FRA) committee, two of whom live in the new houses at Frenchay Park. They were keen to help FRA after being involved in local activities.
A lot of our new Frenchay Park residents have never seen the flower show since they moved in, this is probably the case for all of the residents who have moved to Frenchay since August 2019.
Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations
As you are probably aware, the entire celebrations stretch from Thursday 2nd June to Sunday 5th with two bank holidays for the Thursday and Friday.
The Jubilee Day is Friday, but the day when the Queen is having her own street party is Sunday with the entire nation being asked to celebrate with the Queen from Sunday lunchtime onwards with their own street parties.
FRA will support and help by communicating all of the information to assist residents in creating their own street celebrations on Sunday 5th June.
In conjunction with Frenchay Parish Church, FRA would also like to create a ‘picnic on the common’ event in front of the church for the afternoon of Saturday 4th June, we will provide a live band to create a ‘Songs of Praise’ extravaganza and will ask everyone, nearer the time, for requests so that we can play your favourite songs to sing along to.
At this stage please note these two wonderful events on your calendars: if the weather is kind to us it will be a fantastic community celebration to honour our Queen’s very special jubilee celebrations.
Becks Pool Update
Given the circumstances we have found ourselves in over the past two years it has only been possible to carry out very basic maintenance around Becks Pool with a skeleton staff. Hopefully within the next month or two we shall be in a better position to do more.
To this end would those past volunteers and any new ones please forward Tony Joiner their email address in order that he may advise you of forthcoming activities.
Please Email Tony at tony.joiner@btopenworld.com
Tony and Neil recently met with our local councillor Liz Brennan to discuss the work required to install an aeration system and to construct an information plinth by the pond. This is something for which we need the support of SGC and was in response to Liz’s appeal for things she might be able to do to support local residents. The meeting went extremely well due to the fact that Liz is very much impressed with the amount of work in which members of the community are involved in and around Frenchay.
We are confident that Liz will be successful in her support for our project. This will also enable us to accept and make use of a significant Wessex Water grant, which we will do in a very public event, to provide well deserved publicity for our fantastic Becks Pool team and supporters.
Biodiversity Projects
As mentioned in previous articles, there are many projects underway that will provide opportunities for volunteers and DofE students, the Nature Reserve pond restoration project being one very good example, where we expect to be doing the preparation and clay lining soon and planting during March/April.
Our local Councillor Liz Brennan, in addition to the work on Becks Pool as mentioned earlier, is currently facilitating a ‘matched funding’ application for FRA to cover half the costs for a considerable amount of our biodiversity work.
This includes all of the bulbs and wild flower seed mixes plus important scarifying equipment. FRA are delighted with this support and very grateful to Liz and her colleagues Ben and James.
Getting Current Promises Fulfilled
In our January FCN article we highlighted the local issues that we continually fight for in Frenchay asking you, as residents, to make representation to our District Councillors on these issues to add weight to our campaigns. Just such a request has led to Liz Brennan helping us considerably and in the February FCN copy Councillor Ben Burton made the following request in his article;
“As your local Councillors, we continue to work hard to improve the local area and regularly receive feedback from residents and the local Parish Councillors. If there are any concerns, suggestions or ideas that you would like to discuss then please do not hesitate to contact us”
So please do take Ben up on this offer of support. The current ‘promises not yet fulfilled’ list includes removal and suitable replacements for the Frenchay Common traffic ‘build outs’, adequate Nursery School provision for the new primary school and health plus social care facilities next to BIRU. The provision of a decent shop and café, our Museum expansion planning approval and restoring the Hambrook Junction to its previous function are among the other matters top of our list. FRA are getting some progress on these issues, but please do take up this offer from Ben Burton to suggest how he can help us.
Thank you for your engagement and continuing support.
Adrian Collins (Chair - FRA)