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News from Cheltenham Connect
Cheltenham Connect is a new community initiative that aims to strengthen and empower the residential and trading areas of South Cheltenham i.e. Naunton Park, The Bath Road (south), Tivoli, The Suffolks and The Park. It is currently run by a small group of dedicated residents (all of whom have other daytime jobs!). If successful we hope that it could be replicated in other areas of Cheltenham.
See our website

exmouth

We meet informally every Wednesday evening at The Exmouth Arms
7pm to 9pm.
Come and join us!

Please note that on the 14th of October we will all be at the General Meeting!
Who are we?
Wendy - Chair
Clare - Secretary
Angeline - Treasurer
Karen - Buy Local
Becky - Go Green
Belinda- Skillspace
Wendy - Community

plus all the other members of the CC Steering Groups and Networks


Visit the Group Pages

CC BUY LOCAL
CC GO GREEN
CC SKILLSPACE
CC COMMUNITY


Email us

CC Buy Local (Karen)
CC Go Green (Becky)
CC Skillspace (Belinda)
CC Community (Wendy)



Meeting Dates

Skills & Livelihoods
Networking Meeting
7pm Tues 13th Oct
The Beehive
email Belinda

General Meeting
7pm Weds 14th October
Cheltenham Bowling Club
Suffolk Square
email Wendy


EVENTS
ageofstupid
The Age of Stupid
Film Showing
7pm Sat 24th Oct
Bethesda Church
Tickets £2.50
 
Are you a choir, musician or entertainer?
xmastree
Come and bring some festive cheer to our Christmas Craft Fair!
Become a Sponsor of Cheltenham Connect
We are actively looking for people to help us grow. If you can help in any way let us know

OCTOBER 2009

We have had a really busy month as there are so many things happening! We currently have 200 online members and 700
on the newsletter list.

Cheltenham Connect Activities

CC Buy Local

Christmas Craft Fair

We now have more than 20 local craftspeople signed up to the Christmas Craft Market and it looks as though it will be a great success. As there has been so much interest we have reserved the top room at The Exmouth in addition to the marquee. We have a number of choirs and singers who have offered to take slots during the event and we hope to get the local schools involved.

The Fair will run from 10am to 8pm on Friday 4th and Saturday 5th and from 11am to 4pm on Sunday 6th.

We have issued a press release and are being included in the council's Christmas promotional material. We hope that we can also get some editorial in many of the local magazines and publications. Please contact karen@cheltenhamconnect.co.uk if you would like to be involved or want to help.

Local Trading History Project

We also held a meeting for all the local traders to present our ideas for The Local Trading History Project. Duncan from Paperbox sponsored the meeting by printing all the invitations (we personally hand-delivered them to each trader) and producing a sample of the kind of mounted history board that we have in mind.

samplehistoryboard

The aim is for 50 shops and premises in the local area to be included in the project, for each one to have the history of their premises shown (either in a window or in a wall) and those 50 to then be shown on a fold-out walking map of the area. We are planning to print 10,000 maps that can then be promoted through the Tourist Office and at all of the Festivals. In this way we hope to 'brand' South Cheltenham as an area of particular historical interest.

This is something that the whole community can get involved in and we are especially excited by the idea of working with our elderly residents (many of whom remember the shops as they were fifty or sixty years ago) and the local schoolchildren. The local St Philips and St James' Residents Association (SPJARA) is in the process of developing its ideas for the historical outreach for the Norwood Triangle Renovation and we are in discussion with them as to how we might combine both projects.

We have started talking with local historians and historical organisations about creating a working group for the project and, once this is established, will then launch the project asking for everyone in the community to share with us their photos, stories and historical documents.

We estimate that the project will cost about £7500 (although if we want to also produce a book and website this figure will increase) and are looking at the various options on how this amount might be raised. All offers of help will be gratefully received! (The S&L Group have already held a very successful Auction of Promises towards this that you can read about below).

We hope to have the official launch, together with an accompanying exhibition and local music-fest, in July 2010 which is the Bi-Centenary of the Tramroad.

10 shops and restaurants have already expressed interest and we hope to soon have the required number signed-up. In each case the working group will then research the relevant background information. Once we have identified the history and old photos for each site Phil from White Room Images has offered to take the final photograph for the boards of the current members of staff and shopfronts.

CC Go Green

The Go Green Group is about to send out the preliminary letters  for the Street Pilot and hope to have this up and running by November. This will enable a whole street to have free energy audits and advice with the assistance of The Energy Saving Trust.

ageofstupid2

The Age of Stupid

It has also partnered with Friends of the Earth and Bethesda Methodist Church for a showing of the film 'The Age of Stupid' at the Church on Saturday 24th October 7pm and will be launching '10:10', Cheltenham Connect's support of the Low Carbon initiative created by the director, after the film. We hope to encourage the whole community to sign up to 10:10 as the first step in our campaign to significantly raise awareness of the issues and to encourage community action. With the Transition Town Model in mind we are working towards Cheltenham Connect becoming a highly effective example of community engagement. Details about the film showing can be seen on the left-hand side under our events section.

tenten

This will follow the Annual Network Day for Gloucestershire Friends of The Earth which is timed to be part of the 350.org international day of climate action. Entitled 'Too many people?' Jonathon Porritt and a panel of local MPs will discuss how the Earth's population impacts climate change.

Unfortunately we didn't get the EST Green Communities Grant, that we applied for but we are actively working on others.

CC Skills & Livelihoods

The Skills and Livelihoods Group has overseen what resulted in being a tremendously successful Auction of Promises at St James' Primary School on the 9th of October. More than 50 lots were donated by local traders, suppliers and residents with a wonderful range of locally produced food together with wine from a local wine merchant. Local Councillor and School Governor Stuart Hutton acted as auctioneer and the total amount raised was over £2200. We are enormously grateful to all the people who contributed to the evening's success.

See the final programme here.

See the Photos

auction1auction2

The group has continued with its successful monthly meetings at The Beehive with talks given on time and project management, together its other theme of 'Who we are behind our Business Cards'. Anyone representing a local business, who lives or works within the Cheltenham Connect area is very welcome to attend. Please email Belinda for more information.

This group has now also held a couple of 'cafe-working' mornings at Cafe Moka in the Suffolks where members take their laptops and work together.

CC Community

We shared a stand with Naunton Park Swap, Share and Save at the Naunton Park Autumn Fair and were amazed at how many people already knew about us! You can find out more about their activities by emailing alison@cheltenhamconnect.co.uk

The Brown Jug is now running a regular Wednesday Lunch Club for elderly residents and we hope that this will help us to keep them informed about our activities.

We are still building up the Health and Wellbeing Group and hope to soon start running talks.

We are planning the Cheltenham Connect Christmas Party for the 12 December but due to our rapidly growing numbers this will need to be for sponsors and online members only!!
General Meeting

We are holding a General Meeting at 7pm on Wednesday 14th of October for all the members of Cheltenham Connect together with anyone who wants to know more about what we are doing. This will be a chance for everyone to see what we have achieved in our first six months and to have an input on our future plans. Cheltenham Bowling Club in The Suffolks have kindly offered us the use of their clubroom for the meeting.

Please email Wendy if you are intending to come so that we have an idea of numbers.
The Loss of Robert Young

robertyoungs

The community continues to be greatly impacted by the loss of Robert Young and there are many poignant comments now
posted on the website. This is one of them that is taken from a letter sent to us by local resident Ella Broom:

'I feel very strongly about the sudden closure of Robert Young's.. I am 93 years old and as a child remember going to Pate's Grammar School for Girls, which was then St. Margarets Terrace, I passed the lovely flower shop daily.

I distinctly remember Mr & Mrs Young and their son and daughter. .. Over the years my husband always brought me beautiful bouquets from there on may occasions. In fact I had all my wedding flowers from there.

The long history of the business must go back longer than my memory. What a tragedy it is going to be wiped out and forgotten.

I am sure many people will feel sad, as I do - sad! We all, I am sure, are dreading the thought of a monstrosity being built there to spoil our lovely Leckhampton Road.'

We have now established a working group that is exploring whether there is any way that the community could help ensure that the premises retains its local focus. We feel that it is an immensely important site that sets the tone for the whole of The Upper Bath Road.

You can join the Action Group here.
Our Sponsors
We now have a wonderful and growing list of sponsors and we are immensely grateful for their help. They include:

The Exmouth Arms for the use of their meeting room and providing our launch venue

The Beehive for offering their upper room for our monthly CC Skillspace business network meetings

Graham Boston (from Gloucestershire Connections) for designing the logo

Belinda at GlosOffers.co.uk for our noticeboard on The Bath Road

Clare at Cheltenham Directories for providing a page of editorial about Cheltenham Connect each month.

The Sign Studio for the banner that we used at The Suffolks Fair

Karen at Colourmatters for helping us with the printing costs of our first T shirts

Matt at The Brown Jug for helping with our launch preparations and storing the tombola prizes

Mike and Louise Preston at Independent Eye Carefor providing two beautiful Bugattis for our launch

adVANce+MAN (01242 517 886) for supplying a man with a van to pick up the exhibition stands for the launch

ILEC for the loan of their van for the launch

.St Philips and St James' Church - for the loan of tables for the launch event and the Big Picnic Lunch.

Bethesda Church - for the loan of tables for the launch event

St James' Primary School PTA for lending us their pergolas for the launch and the Big Picnic Lunch.

The University of Gloucestershire for loaning us their exhibition panels and providing the Park Campus for The Big Picnic Lunch

Simone Williams (freelance artworker) simone@hockeyhouse.co.uk - for designing The Big Picnic Lunch poster

Angeline Fuller from Entire Credit - for giving us a large cash box!

Mobenn Marquees for helping us plan the Christmas Craft Fair and offering to provide a marquee at cost.

Cheltenham Bowling Club for the use of their clubroom as a meeting venue. 

Duncan at Paperbox for providing the Trader Invitations and the sample history board.

St James' Primary School for the use of their hall for the Auction of Promises.

In2digital & Mailing Ltd for printing the Auction of Promises catalogue 

Local Councillor Stuart Hutton for offering his services as auctioneer for the Auction of Promises


But we are actively looking for others. Please let us know if you can help in any way.
Please feel free to send a copy of this newsletter to anyone that you think might be interested in Cheltenham Connect.

If you are an editor please help us to let people know about Cheltenham Connect by asking for articles/editorial.

It really is all about people power.
 
The Cheltenham Connect Team
By supporting Cheltenham Connect you are helping to protect and preserve your local community

www.cheltenhamconnect.co.uk