The sun shines on Shire's Big Picnic

At 11.55am, things were looking a bit ropey. The sky was threatening rain, and the only sign of anyone coming to Shire's Big Picnic was a mum with a pushchair some way off, and a dog walker.

But I needn't have worried. Pretty soon, local residents were flooding down to the Lamplighters land in Shirehampton to unfurl their picnic rugs for a peaceful demonstration against the Council's possible plans, under their Parks and Green Spaces Strategy, to put The Daisy Field and Lamplighters Land up for building development.

Over 250 people turned up to Shire's Big Picnic, which is a formidable demonstration of just how much this land is valued by the people in Shirehampton. And sitting there on the grass beside the river, it is easy to see why. This land is one of Bristol's beauty spots. For most cities, this area would be the jewel in their crown. It would be madness to build over it.

It was also very good to see people of all ages sitting down together as a community. Shire's Big Picnic demonstrated that although good facilities for play are important, with just a picnic rug, a bit of food and the company of your friends, family and neighbours, a wonderful day can be had by all.

Lots of people have said to me that Shire's Big Picnic should become an annual event. I am hoping that our campaigning will safeguard this land so Shire's Big Picnic can become a stapel part of the local calendar for many years to come.

If you would like to do your bit to protect the Daisy Field and Lamplighters Land from building development, please sign Cllr. Siobhan Kennedy-Hall's petition HERE

Less of the bad language, please!

Fed up of reading council-speak documents, full of words that seem to mean nothing at all? Read my Daily Mail blog about it HERE

And send me your 'top-ten' awful politi-speak words and phrases...

Westbury Park Community Fair

There are summer fetes and fairs everywhere at the moment. I love things like that ( which I suppose is a good thing, being a candidate) - and I invariably leave with a bag of stuff I had told myself I wouldn't buy: odds and ends and usually crockery from bric-a-brac stalls and the inevitable home-made cake.

I particularly like the idea of a street-fair, like Westbury Park's fair which was held yesterday. It was absolutely packed, the entertainment -which included what my mum would call a 'good old-fashioned' punch and judy show- was superbly organised and by the looks of things, a healthy amount of money was raised. In fact, I wonder how much money has been raised in total fetes like this across Bristol this year?

I like fairs like this because they always show how much community spirit really is out there, beneath the headlines of recession, an atomised society and family breakdown. And there's something very sturdy about this tradition: I hope and suspect that for many a year to come, regardless of headlines, there will be events like this, with bric-a-brac and cake stalls we just can't resist.

Giving the public the real say on the future of Shire's green spaces

Last night I was at a meeting discussing the future of Shirehampton's Daisy Field and part of the Lamplighters land under the Council's Parks and Green Spaces Strategy. That's the strategy whereby areas of land are identified as 'low value', sold off for housing, in order to enhance remaining areas.

The hoards of people pictured here, however, are not the meeting. They are members of the public who were unable to get into the meeting - and to whom an unfortunate council officer gave an impromptu talk and took questions.

For a full version of what happened, read my Daily Mail blog HERE

But in short the whole thing has ignited great public anger -

1. Because asking the people of Shirehampton to sell off the green space they have left in order to 'enhance' the rest with things like sports facilities and a swimming pool, when there is the scar of the demolished old pool, and the mausoleum of the derelict Robin Cousins centre down the road seems to many absurd to the point of being insulting.

2. Trying to alleviate the public's concern about democratic procedure by asking the public to wait until the formal public consultation to put forward their views does not help: People in Shirehampton have objected in the strongest possible terms to so many decisions about their community to apparently no avail, that , as one lady put it, people wonder "What kind of public objection would it take to change decisions under consultation?"

3. In all the opinion gaining exercises the Council is conducting as to what people in Shirehampton want done with their green space, the overwhelming and simple answer is "Please, please just leave it alone! but reopen our closed facilities and maintain our land better". That's the answer. But it doesn't seem to be sinking in...

If you feel strongly about this issue, you can sign a petition online against the designation of The Daisy Field and Lamplighters land as 'low value' by clicking HERE.

Henleaze Fair success - and over £100 raised for new Youth Group

I don't often sit down to get my nails painted, but when all proceeds are going toward the new Henleaze Youth group, set up by Henleaze mum Liz Radford ( pictured in the white t-shirt) , and the nail painters were local young people, well, how could I refuse?

They were amongst the many groups, charities and local crafts-people who had a stall at St. Peter's Church community fair in Henleaze, which I opened at the weekend. The fair raised funds for the church and continuing activities in the community, as well as for a variety of local and third-world charities.

It was particluarly good to see young people taking the initiative and raising money for their own venture. There was a water-tattoo stall run by some very young helpers as well as the nail-painting. The stalls raised over £100 in a matter of hours, and provided many happy customers with some very exotic nails indeed.