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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, Leckhampton,
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

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We normally meet informally every Wednesday evening at The Exmouth Arms
7pm to 9pm.

We are now off until after Christmas and will start meeting again on Wednesday 13th January

Come and join us!
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

Business & Freelancers Networking Evening - Using Twitter & Facebook to promote your business

January 12, 2010 from 7:30pm to 9:30pm - The Beehive, Montpellier Villas

email Belinda



Cheltenham Connect is the proud recipient of a £4000 Cheltenham Borough Council Community Pride Grant

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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

DECEMBER 2009

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December has been an unbelievably busy month with lots going on! Razor have now finished our new logo and have designed all the banners, posters and leaflets for the 10:10 Initiative and The Christmas Fair. All the groups have been developing their own activities and there have been numerous Christmas get-togethers celebrating what we have achieved so far.

The Christmas Craft Fair was a particular success although it took its toll on Karen (who had to holiday in France to recover!) and Wendy who, having stood outside in the cold welcoming people for 3 days, promptly got a really bad cold, lost her voice and had to take to her bed : ))

We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has helped us over the last six months. Looking back it is hard to believe just how much we have accomplished in such a short period of time.

So, Happy Christmas to everyone and we hope that it will be an exciting and local community-full New Year!

Read Wendy's December Cheltonian Magazine article.

Cheltenham Connect Activities

CC Buy Local

Christmas Craft Fair

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The Craft Fair was a great success with more than 40 local craftspeople involved and (we estimate) a couple of thousand local residents attending over the three days. We already have craftspeople booking up for next year. Needless to say there were a few unexpected challenges such as the sudden change in temperature creating frost inside the marquee frame that started to melt over the stands as soon as we turned the heating on!

The Children's Grotto was particularly magical and we are very grateful to our very special Santa (i.e.Malcolm Ball) for managing to fit us into his busy schedule : )

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Many thanks to everyone who helped provide decorations for the tents and a special thank you to Mobenn Marquees who went out of their way to make sure that everything went well, Greenways Nursery who provided the Christmas Trees, Tivoli Trading for Signage, Taylors Fancy Dress for the Elf Costumes and all the choirs and musicians that provided entertainment (The La La Lunchtime Chorus, Pip and Jim's Choir, The Incredibelles, Cheltenham Ukulele Band, Thrill Collins and The Music Man). Also to Dave, Chris and Andy who helped with registration and parking.

You can access the web gallery here.

Local Trading History Project

We now have a lively working group of local historians who are helping with the project. Marilyn West has agreed to be the main researcher for the Bath Road, Jill Waller for The Suffolks and the Reverend Brian Torode for Tivoli. Eric Miller and Michael Dower will be overseeing the summary content for each area together with the details for the history of the tramroad. We are delighted that the St Philips and St James' Area Residents Association (SPJARA) has agreed to partner with us in this so that we can now incorporate the story of the tramroad that is so integral to the Norwood Triangle Renovation.

The plan is for the front of the fold-out trail map to show the entire Cheltenham Connect trading area. Each area (i.e The Suffolks, The Bath Road and Tivoli) will then have a separate list showing all the traders in that area, but highlighting the ones that have the most interesting history (and are therefore picked out on the map). Those sites that are picked out will all be the ones that we will provide with finished boards (or framed texts) giving the history of their site.

The back of the map will provide the history of each trading area along with what we know about the kind of people that might have lived in the area. It will also give a comprehensive history of the tramroad combined with some of the images associated with it.

Given the rich nature of the available research (and the fact that the Suffolks consists of the unexpectedly high number of 68 traders) we have decided to initially increase the number of potential sites to 60. We will now be drafting a letter to the occupants of all these sites inviting them to be involved. We are currently anticipating the cost of participation to be in the region of £150 per site which will enable us to complete the research, to organise the photo-shoots and to design and print the boards and maps. We hope that everyone will see this as money very well spent as the project should significantly increase footfall in the area and those sites with boards will attract particular interest.

We are currently planning the launch for the first week-end in July which is the Bicentenary of the tramroad.

CC Go Green

The Green Group has decided to delay its Pilot Street Project until January so that it can become part of the ongoing 10:10 Low Carbon Initiative.

At the beginning of December we approached all the churches and primary schools in the local area to see if they would like to help us promote the initiative. The churches sent 10,000 leaflets going out with the church Christmas cards and the schools aimed to send home every child with the details in their end-of-term school newsletter. An Echo newspaper photoshoot is currently planned for January with 200 schoolchildren, all the vicars, the school heads and the Cheltenham Connect Team. The suggestion will be that we should all make 10:10 one of our New Year's Resolutions.

The aim is then for Cheltenham Connect to run a series of talks and workshops throughout the year that can support people in the process. All the churches and schools will be provided with registration books in the New Year that will enable people to register their interest.

It has been researching how best to monitor the outcomes and has been in active dialogue with The Energy Saving Trust (EST) about using its Communities Carbon Footprint tool.

The Group is also planning to identify a number of 'Green Demonstration Projects' that have already been carried out by local residents and businesses. It is hoped that the owners will agree to hold 'Open House Events' where they can share their knowledge and expertise with other residents and business owners.

And, in the New Year, it is planning to develop a 'Green Charter' that can be applied to all the activities of Cheltenham Connect and that can also be offered as a guide to all the local businesses in the area.

CC Skillspace

Having found that its new name was very cumbersome in emails and documents the Skills and Livelihoods Group has decided to revert to the old name of Skillspace.

The Skillspace Christmas Dinner at The Exmouth was a great success with 28 attendees. A massive thank you to local councillor Stuart Hutton for being brave enough to take on the role of 'Santa (sharing the challenges and responsibilities of being the 'Founder and Executive Chairman of Festive Manufacture and Distribution Limited!) and CC member and comedy writer Maurice Gran for providing his script.

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See the photos here

The first networking evening of the new year will be at 7.30 at The Beehive on Tuesday January 12th. Helen Dowling from Exceptional Thinking will be talking about "Using Twitter & Facebook to promote your business" and Richard Walter will be sharing some of the background of his rich and varied life!

If you live or work in the Cheltenham Connect area and would like to attend please email belinda@cheltenhamconnect.co.uk

CC Community

The Brown Jug is continuing to host the Wednesday Lunch Club and Matt, as Chairman of The Bath Road Traders Association (BARTA), has done a great job of ensuring that the Bath Road looks as bright and festive as possible for local Christmas shoppers.

The Cheltenham Connect Christmas Party was held in the marquee on the 12 December. Many thanks to The Dixies for providing cool jazz for the first part of the evening and to CC member Richard Walter for DJ'ing and supplying some talented Salsa friends to persuade everyone to dance. Everyone brought food to share and The Exmouth provided a plentiful supply of hot mulled wine. A good time was had by all!

Wendy took the opportunity to present the first ever 'Golden Bell Awards' for services to Cheltenham Connect and the winners were:

Belinda Wilson: Supreme Networker
Karen Wilson : excellence in grotto design
Dave Savell: excellence in parking supervision
Angeline Fuller : excellence in finance and biscuit branding!
Vanessa Angelo-Thomson (on behalf of the Green Group): growing us green
Clare McVey: excellence in communication and local marketing (yet to be picked up)
Cynthia Bale: most helpful elf!

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Robert Young

The working group held a number of very constructive meetings but, with the site such a big project and within such a tight bidding timescale, we were unable to identify a developer who might be interested in working with us.

We understand that bids may now have been received and will aim to present the aims and objectives of Cheltenham Connect to any potential purchaser in the hope that we can work with them to safeguard the local character of the site.

We continue to feel that this is an essential gateway site for the area and that it presents a wonderful opportunity for someone to work alongside a thriving community initiative.
Our Sponsors
We are immensely grateful for everyone's help. Please let us know if we have missed you off the list.


The Local Church Partnership for helping with the 10:10 Initiative

St James' C of E Primary School, Naunton Park Primary School, Leckhampton Primary School and Richard Pate Primary School for helping us with the 10:10 Initiative.

Robin and Sue at Mobenn Marquees for helping us with the marquee for the Christmas Fair

Greenway Nurseries for providing the Christmas trees for the Craft Fair

Cheltenham Ukulele Band for offering their time at all our major events

The Dixies for playing such cool jazz at our launch and the Christmas Party

The Incredibelles for singing at the launch and the Christmas Fair

The La La Lunchtime Chorus for singing at the Christmas Fair

Pip and Jim's (St Philips and St James' Church) Choir for singing at the Christmas Fair

Thrill Collins for playing at the Christmas Fair

The Music Manfor entertaining the children at the Christmas Fair

Tivoli Tradingfor providing the signage for the Craft Fair

Taylors Fancy Dress for providing the elf costumes for the Craft Fair

Cooks Kitsch-In for providing Christmas lights for the Craft Fair

Morans for providing Christmas decorations for the Craft Fair

Chris at Dodwells for regularly providing us with stationery at cost price

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

Jan Vaisey and Ian Harvey for singing at our launch

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 

Cotswold Linen Care for the tablecloths for the Auction of Promises.



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