Festival of Solutions - Opening Weekend  11/9/21

It was a wonderful start to the Festival of Solutions last Saturday. There was a great turn out for Lockleaze Community Litter Pick and it was brilliant to see so many members from the Lockleaze Green Influences group taking part.  

This was followed by an engaging and exciting workshop by artist Scott Farlow, about ways of creatively looking at fly tipping solutions in the area. Big thanks to all that helped out!!!!

Next was the Old Library 5th Birthday Party, which had a great atmosphere and felt like a festival. It was great to see so many people out having fun in the sun and socialising with friends and family. Myself and Alice had many thought-provoking and engaging conversations about climate change, discussing what improvements as a community we can do for our environment.

There seemed to be a lot of parents that were frustrated with public transport in the area and how there is a real need to make it more accessible, affordable, sustainable, and networked. Kat talked about "The trip to the weekly swimming class that is often done on bikes, but on rainy days trying to use the local bus ends up being expensive and far too much hassle with buses not turning up or running late. With family passes costing £8, this makes it far too expensive to do weekly, when it is a short trip that would definitely not cost £8 in petrol". I also have the same dilemma with my two children. I am sure we would make it there on our bikes but after a session of swimming I'm not sure my son Charlie, aged 8, would manage it. 

In the past we have gambled on the bus. You have to leave the house far too early, so if the first bus does not turn up then you have to hope the second does! There have been too many times we have been let down by the unreliable bus service in Lockleaze. I now reluctantly take the car every week. Hopefully as Charlie gets older we can use the bikes for this trip, like some other short trips we do locally. 

We were encouraging people to come to our "Talk Transport day'', where we will be looking at these issues in depth and putting our demands and solutions into our community plan to provide a real alternative to driving, with safer bike/scooter lanes, and accessible, affordable, well networked and sustainable public transport. 

Because of the amazing conversations and inputs from residents that would like to take part in the 'Festival of Solutions', we will be adding things to our line-up. Steve Heigham - XR (Extinction Rebellion) Rebel Elders Bristol, has agreed to play at our 'NO Music on a Dead Planet !' gig on the 17th of October, 2pm - 5pm at The Old Library, Muller Road. 

Kat Corbett expressed her interest in joining in the festival with her The Tales of Care and Repair project she is working on at UWE.

We welcome your suggestions and feedback on the festival and we look forward to seeing you and hearing your ideas and solutions.

- Karen, Community Climate Action Project Lead