Residents Association Report No. 90

Dear Friends and Neighbours,

Well I suspect April has been a more interesting month than anticipated, the Covid bug has definitely had a sting in the tail for many of us and I hope that everyone has come through unscathed. If you are over 75 please ensure that you get the new booster to ensure maximum protection.

Last month we highlighted the Frenchay Residents Association (FRA) community lunches, to which several have responded, so we will look to re-establish those as soon as it is safe to do so. The idea is to arrange lunch at a local venue for residents to get together first Monday every month. Prior to that Hugh Whatley is happy to open Frenchay Museum from 11am for a private tour as an aperitif. This proved increasingly popular and gave some residents the chance to get out and meet new friends.

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

On Saturday 4th June, on the common opposite Frenchay Parish Church from lunchtime onwards, FRA are organising a picnic afternoon which you are all invited to. We will have live music from the Concord Band to sing along to, followed by a young a jazz band called ‘The Provision’ whose guitarist is a young lad from Frenchay Park.

We are planning to provide teas, coffee and cold drinks, probably through a local Scout group, but please bring everything that you need for the afternoon.

The famous FRA portaloos will reappear and every attempt will be made to get the psychedelic green ones used for our picnic day last August!

There will be plenty of room for games and other activities on the common, please do not bring BBQ’s unless you are using the safe designated area by the school. We cannot risk injuries or fire damage to the common. Thank you for your consideration.

Finally we will do a ‘bucket collection’ to help fund the expenses of the two bands and their ongoing work, but the intention is to support these groups only, not any other causes.

We will publicise this on our Facebook page and all around the village, please feel free to share this information and encourage friends and neighbours to join us. Look forward to seeing everyone on the afternoon and we promise that good weather has been reserved!

Village Wild Flower Projects & Nature Reserve Pond

We aim to mark out, scarify and seed the same areas as last year, which seemed to have everyone’s support from the feedback received. The wild flower meadow adjacent to Becks Pool was particularly lovely and Frenchay Hill with no strimmer in sight was a beautiful sight as the sun set behind the church.

We will be using the same seed mixes including cornflowers, SGC have assisted us with a generous grant of £1, 560 towards seeds and equipment. The swathe just down from CLIC Cottage that is already left ‘wild’ will be greatly enhanced this season and we already have three DofE volunteers in our team, more are welcomed and our champion from last year is happy to help mentor you.

The other significant project will be the clay lining and planting of the nature reserve pond, this is likely to be in May now, when BAM do the landscaping for the new school.

We will shout out for volunteers as soon as that planting plan is finalised.

Tree Preservation

Although we sit in a conservation area and are in the middle of a climate emergency, the strain on our trees is still unbearable.

Seldom has a day gone by recently where the buzz of chainsaws cannot be heard nearby, most we hope is for routine maintenance and repairing storm damage.

However, with lucrative profits from perceived development opportunities within space in more established residential areas, we must do everything that we can to stop the loss of beautiful mature trees. Problems like ash dieback make the situation worse and occasionally a beautiful tree succumbs to a storm, as we saw at Frenchay Park House in March with their Holm Oak that fractured completely and couldn’t be saved.

So FRA are now finalising their plans to identify potential trees at risk and ensure that they are protected. The SGC arboreta team have protections in place on far more than we realised, but we are not sure if they have one central record due to the time it can take them to identify and help check upon trees at risk. So anything that we put together is designed to complement and support their difficult work. Local plans and a cohesive strategy will make this happen and we have several volunteers in our FRA ‘skills bank’ with expertise to call upon. If you wish to help us please make contact, you’ll be most welcome.

Frenchay Speedwatch

Lighter evening’s mean that these speed monitoring activities will start again shortly, the usual ‘hotspots’ continue to surprise us with some of the vehicle speeds being witnessed.

Our FRA led group is trained and ready to go, if you wish to be trained to help us please make contact. It has taken a lot of work to get this underway and get the Police to train us.

Frenchay Museum Volunteers

Following on from last month’s exciting news about planning permission for an extension, we would like to draw your attention to the article elsewhere in this edition of Community News which summarises opportunities to assist with various tasks and activities at Frenchay Museum.

The key point is that you don’t need to become a ‘committee person’ - just to volunteer some time for something which interests you! Again, we hope this new approach will appeal to our developing FRA ‘skills bank’ of people with relevant expertise but limited spare time.

Observation Corner

Each month we will pose a question where the answer might surprise you, or at least make you stop and think?

Q As some new developments are finally starting to show the use of solar panels, (e.g. Harry Stoke blocks of flats by UWE junction on ring road) is this use of energy efficient processes in response to the SGC Climate Emergency introduced over two years ago?

A No it is not. None of the current planning conditions for small or large developers for new builds make this a stipulation for gaining planning permission. The new SGC local plan being consulted upon hopes to change that, but it could be two years before solar panels, heat exchangers or ground source heat pumps and similar environmentally friendly methods become mandatory at local planning level.

Planning officers are aware of such needs and always praise developers who put them into their designs, but this is still not a mandatory planning condition. Surely it needs to be?

I look forward to seeing you at the 4th June Jubilee Picnic by the Parish Church, thank you for your engagement and continuing support.

Adrian Collins (Chair - FRA)