New Bridgwater Anti Rubbish Team (BART) ready to Clean Up Act!

2011-07-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

Residents of Victoria Park area overwhelmingly agreed to form a voluntary group to clear up litter from the park, streets, canal and docks at a Public meeting yesterday organised by the Victoria Park Community Centre.

The initiative spearheaded by local resident Mark Hollidge told the meeting “Three years ago as a dog walker and cyclist I was fed up with seeing litter everywhere and decided that I could either accept it, moan about it or change it. I decided to try and change it”.

Doreen Baker the Manager at Victoria Park said “I applaud Mark’s commitment to this initiative and his determination has paid off. Not only have we enlisted the support of local residents and users of the canal who can choose to work on land or on water, but also Sedgemoor District Council and British Waterways”.

The first clean up takes place on Monday 18^th July 9.30am-11.30am and volunteers will meet up outside the Admiral's Landing pub at the Docks. For further information contact BART's organiser Mark Hollidge on 01278 410790 or mark.hollidge@hotmail.co.uk

Victoria Park Community Centre

2011-04-15T05:28:00.000-07:00

There certainly is something for everyone at the Victoria Park Community Centre.

A truly unique environment created to help build and support all of the needs of the local community - young or old we welcome everyone to join in and become part of our special community.

The community centre came from the Victoria Building Communities Project and from identifying that the area had high crime levels, lack of community facilities and lack of any real community engagement.

Through workshops with the council, other agencies and residents we looked at how this could be addressed and what funding and support was available. In 2002 Victoria Park was chosen as one of four regional ‘pathfinder’ projects.

In 2004 using public meetings and a questionnaire to residents, which together with deprivation statistics, was used to produce a “Needs Analysis”. This analysis was used to develop the brief for the new centre and, with the recent completion of the fit-out of the community cafe, the centre is addressing all the key needs and aspirations identified within the needs analysis.

There was further consultation during the design stages of the project, including consultation meetings held by the design team and an open day held in August 2004 in Victoria Park to consult on access arrangements and the proposed facilities within the centre. There were 89 written responses from residents during this event.

Two workshops were also held during the development process with partner agencies and local residents to look at how the centre should operate once the buildings were completed. These were held in 2004 and 2007.
The Council is working in partnership with Newtown and Victoria Springboard Ltd, which will take over the running of the Centre. The Board of the Company comprises agency and resident directors, with the majority being residents of the area.

In 2007 we opened Victoria Park Community Centre and since that time have provided a range of facilities, events and services. We continue to provide these and much more, and with the help of partners, agencies and residents are proud to be a proactive community centre that cares.