We are Friends of Emersons Green Park, a local voluntary group that meets every Thursday at 10am.
We began by establishing the community orchard. The first trees were planted there in 2011. More recently our group has grown and we are now able to do other things, like the dry stone wall we completed near the Langley Arms entrance, the wildlife garden next to the Village Hall, the living willow dome village that we created in 2022/3, and the Dinosaur Garden in 2024.
We are also responsible for running a local festival, now called Earthfest, which aims to inspire us all in terms of our relationship with the Earth. This year (2024) was a month long festival from May 27th through to June 22nd. Click on the following link to see what was on this year’s programme.
We have an active Facebook group, which we would recommend you join if you would like to hear about our weekly activities.
You can also subscribe to news on this website, which is published on an occasional basis.
We have an active management committee made up of seven local people, chaired by Graham Johnson with Ann Birkett as secretary, and Sharon Bonson as Treasurer
Friends of Emersons Green Park 
Hi,
When our new chair took office she called for more interaction between friends groups.
Along with many many others, the Friends of Kingswood Park gave written evidence to the parliamentary select committee studying at the state of UK parks and green spaces. The committee recommend that friends groups form forums as a base for interaction with the local authority. The local authority can then consider green spaces as one portfolio rather than as disparate individual sites.
The forum will:
– Allow us to share information
– Promote networking between groups
– Provide support to Friends Groups
– Provide an umbrella group for the development of new friends groups
– Provide a context within which Friends groups can work
– Create a stronger voice for conservation, parks and green spaces
– Produce best practice
(National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces).
We attended a meeting of the Bristol Parks Forum as an observer and were impressed with the level of discussions with the local authority as well as the networking between groups.
Visit http://www.bristolparksforum.org.uk to see how the Bristol Parks Forum works.
We raised this at the last Community Spaces Network meeting and found support among those present. Our invitation has appeared in the Community Spaces Network newsletter, but near the end, so many of you will not have got that far yet! I have reproduced the relevant part and attached it to this message.
I have applied for a small grant to cover start-up expenses and the CVS have also pledged their help so I hope that starting up will be smooth and painless. The chair of Bristol Parks Forum is willing to give us a talk and answer questions at an early stage.
A Friends group forum would network and co-ordinate our activities and provide a collective platform for consultation with South Gloucestershire Council.
Please will you respond, indicating your interest and support for forming a forum? Also, please can you alert other friends or conservation groups who might benefit fro the forum?
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