Window Wanderland 2019

Our local Window Wanderland is coming up over the weekend 23-24 February. In case you aren’t sure, this is an event where residents decorate and light up their windows. In the past it has been really nice wandering around our area, taking in all the different displays. If you want to have a look, you can find past windows here or our Facebook and Instagram pages.

This year we have chosen a theme, “Our Planet”, but you can actually do anything which takes your fancy! We would really like to reach out and increase the windows on display this year. Your window does not have to be anything too fancy, fairy lights are a good way to brighten up a February evening without too much difficulty. With the Window Wanderland event in mind, we have asked Emma at Chandos Atelier to run a workshop for would-be Window Wanderlanders on the evening of 7 February. More details to follow!

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We Will Remember Them

At 10.30 on the morning of 11 November about 50 residents of the Chandos Road Neighbourhood gathered at our local war memorial on Chandos Road to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armistice at the end of World War 1. There are 48 names inscribed on the rough granite memorial. We focused on the wartime experience of 9 of these men whose lives had been researched by Geoff Swain, one from each street in the neighbourhood. We learned a little about each of these men and how they died before sharing the poem ‘Reconciliation’, written by Siegfried Sassoon just after the Armistice had been signed in 1918. We then observed the traditional 2 minute silence before setting off to visit the houses where the 9 men had lived. Ellie Breed had put together the information about the men onto a display board, which can be seen by the war memorial on Chandos Road and individually outside their homes, also indicated by a poppy chalked on the pavement. We hope that many local residents will pause and read about these men, who mostly died at a young age in the Great War 100 years ago.

Personal Memorials

Halloween Pumpkin Carving Competition

31^st Oct 2018

5:30 – 8:00

This an invitation to everyone in the area to get creative and make a scarily good jack-o-lantern and then display it for all to see in your front garden or window. You can share your designs on Instagram or Facebook with #chillingchandos and get out to see what your neighbours have done. The winning lantern will be crowned the pump-king of the Chandos Road area.

What a glorious day

Please let us know what you think of this year’s Chandos Road Festival at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GTB2RFL. Our questionnaire is anonymous and will only take a couple of minutes. Your feedback will be invaluable when planning next year’s event. Thanks!

The festival is coming

Join us for the fifth annual Chandos Road Festival on 23rd September 2018 from 12:00 – 18:00. Last band on at 17:00.

There are loads of events including three live music stages, puppet show, face painting and an array of stalls. And of course not to forget the yummy offerings from our many cafés, bars and restaurants. This fun event is open to all and free to attend. We hope to see you there!

This event is organised by the Chandos Traders Association and the Chandos Neighbourhood Association.

There is up to date infotmation on the Festival’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/chandosfest) and on Instagram (@chandosfest).

And the winner is…

We are delighted to report that after careful and systematic measuring, our 2018 Sunflower-grower of the season is Dave Todd from Elliston Road, coming in at 2m34. Runner-up was Graham Balfry at 2m12 and in 3rd place Deborah Wareham at 2m03.

The prize of Rubicon Breakfast will be awarded at the Street Festival, 23 September.

Thank you all for taking part in this weirdest of growing seasons!

Open Meeting – 3 Jul 2018

Despite the efforts of the World Cup organisers, we had a good turnout at our meeting in Chums last week. This was a meeting where we focused most of our attention on the growing problem of large, professionally organised student parties. We were very pleased to welcome Ms Lynn Robinson, Deputy Registrar of the University of Bristol with responsibility for the non-academic side of student life and Ms Joni Lloyd, Community Liaison Officer who regularly attends our meetings. Ms Robinson was able to hear first hand concerns about these parties. We live in an area where we calculate that students make up 46% of the population and our association has been notified of 13 such parties in this most densely populated part of the City of Bristol. I attach the minutes of the meeting, but will summarise briefly.

• Information about how other universities approach this problem was passed on to Ms Robinson who said that she would look at this information and would follow up. The focus should be on prevention. Joni Lloyd has conducted a programme in all halls of residence this year to advise students about such issues as noise and being a good neighbour. Students are advised that they should have no more than 3 guests per person and any noise should be shut down by 10 pm, slightly later at the weekends. They are looking at the sanctions structure. At present, if the University receives a complaint, each student in the household can be fined up to £100. This may be increased. The university employs a daytime police-officer, they may increase this presence. Ms Robinson agreed that these parties constitute not only enormous nuisance and distress to us as residents, but that there is an issue of student welfare and health and safety.
• Joni Lloyd reminded us that if residents are made aware of a party in advance, they should immediately contact her (community-living@bristol.ac.uk) AND the council noise team (neighbourhood.enforcement@bristol.gov.uk). This can quickly lead to a noise abatement order which, if breached, can lead to a £5000 fine.
• Our focus as residents was how to get support in the middle of the night. The police will not act unless the party spills out onto the street and the Council does not have resources. We asked if the University Security Team could patrol around areas such as the Chandos Rd area (where most of the problem parties occurred last year) and be available to us to phone and alert about an intrusive party. They do not have powers to do anything other than warn the students that they have logged the party with the UoB authorities who could then follow up with sanctions. Nonetheless, it was felt that this might be more effective than hapless residents trying to quell the party in view of the large numbers involved. Ms Robinson said that she would take this idea away and see how it could work.
• The role of landlords was discussed. In reality, they do not have an interest in evicting students half way through the year, but if they felt their HMO licence was under threat, they might feel they had an interest in the good behaviour of their tenants. This is an issue for the Council and Councillor Negus is looking into it.
• We undertook to bolster our own efforts with our autumn student welcome with a joint letter/email with the universities. In it we would point out the need to be considerate, good neighbours and outline possible sanctions if students overstep the mark in terms of general behaviour and these very large parties.

It was a very productive evening at which the UoB representatives were able to hear the upset and distress caused by a small minority of our 800 student neighbours. We look forward to news of positive outcomes. We would like to thank Mark at Chums for allowing us to use Chums for the meeting, very much appreciated!

CNA Minutes Full 3jul18 v2 with corrections