The work of the city’s 14 Neighbourhood Partnerships will be under the spotlight at the first annual Pride of Place celebrations.
The council began devolving millions of pounds worth of the authority’s centrally-held budget to the partnerships in April 2010, in order to allow local communities working with ward members and service providers, to shape the way a range of services are delivered to better reflect local priorities.
These services include street cleaning, park maintenance, local recycling schemes, minor traffic schemes, highway maintenance and community safety.
Now the achievements of the city’s partnerships are to be celebrated with an awards ceremony and an exhibition at the new M Shed.
Councillor Barbara Janke, Leader of Bristol City Council, said: “The fundamental principle behind Neighbourhood Partnerships is that local communities are best-placed to know what the local needs and priorities are.
“It has been a learning process but the partnerships are now delivering improvements in communities across the city, in line with local wishes.
“There is much more to do but it is important that we recognise and acknowledge the work that has been done to date as the council works with communities across the city to renew and to strengthen local democracy.”
The first celebration of Pride of Place will include an exhibition at M Shed, which will run throughout the last week of July.
Each Neighbourhood Partnership has devised a display that gives a flavour of what they have been doing over the last year or so.
Some will show how local people have worked with agencies such as the council and police to improve their neighbourhoods by, for example, improving local parks, making shopping centres more attractive and encouraging people to walk and cycle.
Others will focus on how Partnerships have distributed their well-being grants and what difference they have made.
Several Bristol-wide organisations have got together to identify Neighbourhood Partnership success in various fields.
Bristol NHS and City of Bristol College will each be identifying which Partnership has done the most to promote health and education in their area, while the council’s libraries and museums services will identify those that have done most in promoting community involvement.
In addition, the Partnerships that have done most to promote sustainable development will receive recognition from the Green Capital Group and SITA Ltd, while Voscur and the Black Development Agency will recognise good work in stimulating community involvement, volunteering and working with community organisations.
The hope is that these initial six awards will encourage other agencies to offer prizes in the future as the Pride of Place scheme develops.
Finally, Pride of Place celebrations will see the launch of a Champion Neighbourhood Partnership for 2011 Award.
This will be in addition to the six specialist awards above.
A panel, made up of staff from the police, council, health authority and fire service, as well as private businesses, voluntary groups, city councillors and residents from Partnerships across Bristol, will oversee it.
In all, several hundred people are involved, and each has been asked to identify which two Neighbourhood Partnerships have done the most to improve their area over the few years.
Winners in the six specialist categories and 'best in show' category will be announced at an event on Wednesday 27July at the M Shed.
Each participant will receive an engraved plate from Bristol Blue Glass. Those who are 'Highly Commended' will receive certificates.
Speakers at the event will include Councillor Guy Poultney, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods.
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