The Bradley Stoke Journal

Bradley Stoke’s new £160,000 play park on Jubilee Green, Savages Wood Road, is to be officially opened this Friday (24th July).

The park has been designed for people of all ages to enjoy and will incorporate slides, a nest swing, rowing and cycling machines, a climbing frame, a sand pit and (eventually) a youth space and shelter.

The project was awarded a grant of £55,000 from the Big Lottery Fund in December 2007, with the remainder of the money coming from South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) and Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC).

The Journal has however recently learned that the original funding does not cover construction of the youth space and that a further grant will have to be sought in order to complete this aspect of the project.

Construction of the park began in the last week of May and contractors have been working overtime to get the project completed in time for the opening day.

Once completed, the park will be maintained by SGC for the first twelve months after which responsibility will pass to BSTC.

Southern Brooks Community Partnership (SBCP) has helped set up a ‘Friends of Jubilee Green’ group for people interested in supporting the play park project. The group will plan events, promote the park, provide feedback, help with fundraising and gather and share information about the park.

Winsome Barrett-Muir of SBCP told The Journal:

“Southern Brooks have been involved in the consultation and in recruiting residents to form a Friends group, the aim of which is to promote the park and work with the town council in its upkeep and management. By actively involving local residents, Southern Brooks hope that incidents of antisocial behaviour that may result in damage to the new equipment and disturbance of local residents near the park will be reduced. The newly formed Friends of Jubilee Green group have taken the lead and are organising some activities to go along with the opening event.”

Michelle Dent of the Friends of Jubilee Green group added:

“The grand opening is an event that will celebrate the hard work from Bradley Stoke Town Council, the designer and the amazing amount of fund-raising that has taken place. We feel it is an exciting design that we hope will encourage the whole community to use the space and bring people of all ages together.”

“The friends group will be involved in running future events and there are plans under way for a bulb/wild flower planting in September/October our website will be updated with all forthcoming events.”

The friends say they are looking to recruit more energetic, passionate people to join their group. They are keen to have representatives from all aspects of the community and are especially looking for teenagers to join their committee, where they will be able to help with the future development of the park and fund raising.

The opening of the park will be celebrated with community activities between 4pm and 6pm. Further details are expected to be available on the Friends of Jubilee Green website later this week. Chainsaw artist Peter Leadbeater will be carving railway sleepers to form bollards for the park; he will also be running a competition for people to guess how long it will take to carve one, the prize being a carved wooden mushroom.

Bradley Stoke Mayor Mark Forsyth will ceremonially open the park at 4:30pm.

Latest plans of the play park (on the BSTC website):

• Jubilee Green Detail Layout [PDF, 100KB]
• Jubilee Green Drawing [PDF, 2.65MB]

See also: Latest photos of the play park(on PicasaWeb).

Contractors working on the new Beacon Play Park on Jubilee Green are racing to complete the project in time for a grand opening on 24th July.

Work on the new facility began in May following a series of delays which saw the cost of the project rise by 45% to around £160k.

Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) previously said the work would take five to six weeks but the park is still far from finished more than seven weeks after diggers moved onto the site on 27th May.

The original timescale announced by the Council allowed a period of about four weeks for “turf on the site to establish” before the play park was opened to the public.

Despite the delays, Bradley Stoke Matters reports that the grand opening will go ahead on Friday 24th July, between 4pm and 6pm.

Latest plans of the play park (on the BSTC website):

• Jubilee Green Detail Layout [PDF, 100KB]
• Jubilee Green Drawing [PDF, 2.65MB]

Construction of the new Beacon play park on the Jubilee Green, Savages Wood Road, finally got underway this week as contractors moved onto the site.

The park was originally expected to be finished by Easter, with an official opening planned for the Community Festival in June, but delays and setbacks have seen the projected completion date slip to the end of June.

Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) now says the park will open on Friday 24th July, “after turf on site has had a chance to establish”.

A spokesperson for BSTC said:

“We are delighted the hard work of both councils and their partners are now coming to fruition”

“We will be announcing plans for events to coincide with the park’s opening in due course.”

The cost of building the park is understood to be around £160k, having risen by 45% since plans were first drawn up. The Big Lottery Fund is providing £55k with the remainder coming from South Gloucestershire Council and BSTC.

The latest plans show that the park will be roughly circular in shape and will incorporate three man-made mounds. A wooden bridge will link two of the mounds, while the third mound will incorporate a spiral path and a ‘phone tube’ linking two seating areas built into its sides.

Equipment in the park will include a climbing pole, rodeo board, exercise bikes and a rowing machine. Two slides and a sand pit will be provided for younger children, while teenagers will be given the opportunity to ‘design & build’ their own shelter.

Local residents have expressed concerns that the park will act as a magnet for vandalism and anti-social behaviour in the evenings and have unsuccessfully called for the park to be bounded by a fence, allowing it to be closed at night.

The scheme has already been targeted by vandals, who recently destroyed two trees that had been planted in February along the edge of the Savages Wood Road site.

Southern Brooks Community Partnership (SBCP) is setting up a ‘Friends of Jubilee Green’ group for people interested in supporting the play park project. Winsome Barrett Muir of SBCP says the group will plan events, promote the park, provide feedback, help with fundraising and gather and share information about the park. More information and contact details are available here [PDF, 79KB] on the SBCP website.

Latest plans of the play park (on the BSTC website):

• Jubilee Green Detail Layout [PDF, 100KB]
• Jubilee Green Drawing [PDF, 2.65MB]

Trees planted just months ago along the edge of the Jubilee Green in Savages Wood Road have been destroyed in a mindless attack by vandals.

Over 20 trees were planted as part of a community action day in February to mark the start of a project to construct a Beacon Playground on the site.

A local resident contacted The Journal with news that two of the trees had been damaged in an attack thought to have occurred last Thursday night.

A visit by The Journal’s reporter confirmed that two of the ten foot high trees have been snapped off at a point about three feet above ground level.

Construction of the Jubilee Green Playground is yet to begin, despite plans to have it ready for the Community Festival in mid-June. The project was recently hit by a 45% rise in costs after tenders were found to be significantly higher than had been anticipated.

News of the vandalism comes just weeks after similar damage was inflicted on a number of comparatively smaller trees in the town’s Community Orchard (planted in 2007), situated in the Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve, behind the Secondary School.

Wednesday’s meeting of Bradley Stoke Town Council’s (BSTC’s) Finance & Leisure Committee was told that the cost of the new Jubilee Green play park is likely to be £50k more than had been originally estimated.

The March meeting of Full Council had been told that tenders for the project would be opened on 3rd April and that work should start within three weeks of that date. The work was expected to take about five weeks, meaning that it could be completed a couple of weeks before the Community Festival in mid-June, the main part of which takes place on the Jubilee Green.

The cost of the scheme had been estimated at £110k, with £55k coming from a grant made by the Big Lottery Fund to South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) Beacon Play Park programme.

Town Clerk David Chandler told Wednesday’s F&L meeting that the lowest of the five tenders received is £160k, meaning that an extra £50k must be found if the original specification is to be retained.

Mr Chandler said he had been given “provisional assurances” that SGC can fund the shortfall, although he stressed that there has been no official confirmation of this. He added that there might be scope for “shaving a bit off the estimate”.

The three SGC Councillors present at Wednesday’s meeting were tasked with taking up the matter with SGC officials.

The Town Clerk expressed concern that the funding difficulties could delay the project, meaning that the play park might not be ready in time for June’s Community Festival.

The Journal Comments

Neighbours of the Jubilee Green who fear that the new play park will attract vandalism and anti-social behaviour in the evening are likely to be surprised at how easily SGC has been able to find extra funding.

Their request that the park be secured by a high fence, so that it could be closed at night, was rejected by SGC officials on the grounds that no further funds were available.