Very sadly, Filton People Community Group in its current form closed down at the end of March 2008 and was no longer able to offer services.

Do contact Filton Town Council, Southern Brooks Community Partnership or South Gloucestershire Council's area Community Engagement Officer for help in the areas Filton People used to cover.

History

Our Group started in 1994 with support from a County of Avon community development worker. A steering group was formed with local workers and residents, and the group was named Filton Community Profile Project (FCPP - changed to Filton People in 2002). Its aim was to identify Filton’s social, environmental and recreational needs, and to promote and encourage participation in seeking community solutions. A questionnaire was delivered to every home in Filton, and replies were collated to create a report, the Filton Profile Report, published in 1996.

Local people’s main issues of concern were:

• The needs of older people
• The needs of children and young people
• Traffic and transport issues
• The environment
• The rapid rate of change locally, and its impact on Filton’s environment and quality of life

The Report was subsequently used by FCPP, Filton Town Council and South Gloucestershire Council to start addressing some of these issues. Funds were raised to employ our own worker who began work in Autumn 1996. Over the following years we tackled these issues through such projects as those described below.

Older people

We started our work by concentrating on the needs of older people. Their main issues appeared to be loneliness and isolation, mobility and transport problems, maintenance and repair difficulties, lack of practical and leisure facilities, and concerns about community care facilities. We tackled these through the following projects:

• Over 60s information sheet: In 1997 we produced a comprehensive list of useful local facilities for older people, including advice, clubs, activities, health, disability, care and carers, and transport This was widely advertised and distributed through local sheltered homes, over-60s groups, and health professionals. It has remained popular both within and outside Filton, and was updated in 2002.
  
• Practical services for older people: From 1996-1998 we worked with a consortium led by Age Concern South Gloucestershire to help establish practical services help for older people in the county. This led to the establishment of South Gloucestershire Care & Repair in 1999.
  
• Over 60s transport report: Published in spring 1998, this report was the result of a survey of nearly 200 Filton residents over 60 years old, asking what transport modes they used, what difficulties they encountered and what would help improve things. It was used successfully to start a new community transport group, Four Towns Transport.
  
• 
  Filton contact the elderly group: From 1996 we worked to start a local group of the national charity, Contact the Elderly, which takes elderly housebound people living alone out for a monthly tea. We recruited the required team of volunteer car drivers and volunteer hosts, and found local elderly people who wanted to join. Our first tea was in August 1997 and we have been out monthly ever since, and our group remains very popular with both elderly members and the volunteers! An independent review of the Group carried out in 2003 noted the satisfaction of the elderly users and was very complimentary about the service provided.
  
• Consultation and representation: We built up relationships with local older people, particularly through local over-60s groups, sheltered and residential homes, and our Contact the Elderly members. We have then been able to represent their views on issues of concern to them, as below.
  
• Community care representation: We have been consistently involved in relevant local and strategic health and social services reviews and consultations on community care issues of concern for older people; and been able to influence policy in many cases.

Children and young people

From about 1999 we started to concentrate on the needs of children, young people and their families.

• Filton families: From 1999 our South Gloucestershire Community Development worker organised a monthly meeting of statutory and voluntary sector representatives involved with Filton families, children and young people. The group provides a valuable forum for sharing practical and technical expertise and giving support to members providing a wide variety of services, including health and social care, youth and play workers.
  
• Out of school - what do Filton children want?:  In 2000 we carried out a large survey to find out what local children wanted to be able to do out of school. Nearly 250 children and young people aged 5-18 and their parents were asked what they did now out of school, and what they would like to be able to do in Filton. The results were published in 2002 and have been used successfully since then to bring in more resources to Filton. They showed that the overwhelming majority of children who answered were looking for active adventurous activities, preferably free and non-membership. Of these, a BMX/skateboard park topped the list of requests, followed by an adventure playground, and more and better sports activities.
  
• Improvements to play facilities in Conygre: Conygre Ward in north Filton remains one of the poorest wards in South Gloucestershire, and has very little play space. Over the last few years we have worked there to upgrade a local park with new play facilities and planting; to turn garages in local council flats into a basketball area; to run holiday play schemes; and with a local residents’ group to create fun opportunities for children in the flats.
  
• BMX track in Elm Park: Over a couple of years we consulted with young people and fundraised £17,000 for a BMX play track and fencing to go in a local park. This was constructed by a specialist contractor in 2002, and handed over to Filton Town Council. It remains very popular with local young people.
  
• Skateboard park in Elm Park: We fundraised £17,000 to install the base of a skateboard park in a local park in 2004.
  
  
• Youth shelter in Elm Park: We consulted with young people and fundraised for a youth shelter in a local park. The young people’s requirements were taken to a  firm of Bristol designers, who designed and installed the curvy, comfortable one-off design to suit. We then ran a four-day workshop with a talented local graffiti artist and local young people, to spray paint the shelter to their own designs. Total costs about £9,500, finished 2005.
  
• Sporty summer play scheme: From the summer of 2001 to 2003 we worked with local sports students and other volunteers, to run a weekly sporty play scheme in Conygre through the holidays.
   Drumming workshop: In 2003 we worked with a Bristol music charity to put on a one-day world roots drumming workshop, followed by a drumming course.
  
• Children’s Fund: From its inception in South Gloucestershire in 2002, we worked closely with the Children’s Fund partnership to improve facilities for children age 5 to 13 at risk of exclusion and deprivation. In partnership with Children’s Playlink, we obtained a grant to run local play schemes in the school holidays for three years from 2003.
  
• Focus on Play and South Gloucestershire Council’s play policies and strategies: From 2001 we worked closely with a statutory and voluntary sector partnership campaigning to raise the profile of play in South Gloucestershire. We helped create South Gloucestershire Council’s Play Policy and the basis of their Play Strategy, and were instrumental in the appointment of a Play Officer in 2005.

Traffic and transport issues

Partly owing to its position at a major transport crossroads with many large developments nearby, Filton has more than its share of road-related problems In 1996 these included traffic congestion, poor transport for those without a car, and some poor facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. Some of our projects to tackle these problems included:

• Over 60s Transport Report: Published spring 1998: The results of a survey of nearly 200 Filton residents over 60 years old into what transport modes they used, what difficulties they encountered and what would help improve things. Successfully used for, amongst other things, starting a new community transport group, Four Towns Transport.
   
• Four Towns Transport: Based on the evidence of the Over 60s Report, South Gloucestershire Council awarded us a grant to bring together interested local people, to establish and support a steering group and to carry out development work to support a community transport scheme to cover Filton and surrounding parishes. The steering group’s hard work enabled them to attract a £55,500 grant to fund a co-ordinator, buy a minibus and fund running costs. In the summer of 1999 a co-ordinator was appointed and from then on Four Towns Transport has gone from strength to strength. It recently amalgamated with Vale Link Community Transport, owns a fleet of vehicles, runs a Ring & Ride scheme and runs a bus service.
  
• Shield Retail Centre Link Road crossing: When the new  Shield Retail Centre including Filton’s new library was opened in 1999, it transpired that there was no direct pedestrian link to it across the A4134 Link Road! So using a petition from local people and an analysis of the distances people with mobility problems had to walk, we successfully lobbied South Gloucestershire Council’s Highways unit to rethink their layout and install a pedestrian crossing across this major dual carriageway.
  
• Small schemes: We have helped campaign for small local schemes to improve safety and comfort for pedestrians and cyclists.
  
• 'An analysis of some of the main street and traffic-related problems facing Filton': We prepared this document in 1999, primarily to inform South Gloucestershire Council policy-makers of the real difficulties facing Filton.     
  
• Taxi Card Scheme: In 1999 as part of our work to establish new forms of Community Transport, we researched and published a document recommending a pilot taxi card scheme. These schemes incorporate commercial taxis into Community Transport schemes to provide one-to-one trips, and can be a more financially viable alternative to Dial-a-ride schemes.

The environment; improving the quality of life in Filton

• FEAG: We supported the development of the Filton Environmental Action Group (FEAG), which ran from 1996 to 2004 and conducted a number of significant projects including stream cleans, and extensive tree planting in local parks.
  
• ‘Filton Together’: An initiative started in 2000 by the local Methodist church, St Andrew’s, to help improve Filton at a grass roots level. It brought important sectors of the community together, including Filton Town Council, voluntary organisations, and the churches. Having carried out some valuable work it was superseded by Filton Community Safety Group, which continues to contribute greatly to the ongoing improvement of Filton.
  
• Planning issues: Over the years we have alerted local people to various planning issues that might affect them.
  
• Street improvements: We participated in initiatives to improve the physical appearance of Filton, for instance by street and shopfront improvements, planting, and improved street cleaning.
  
• Family events: We supported initiatives to bring more fun into Filton, such as the Filton 2000 group which puts on an annual festival with a fun fair, and other popular family events.

Community history and heritage

Filton has a particularly rich modern history because of the presence of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, the world’s oldest commercial plane company that would become British Aerospace and now Airbus. Filton People and its sister organisation Filton Community History Group have worked consistently to record and protect such local history, and to bring it alive for future generations, and they continue to give talks and displays on the subject. Their many projects include:  

• Millenium History Project:  In 1997/98 Filton People designed a history project to explore Filton’s rich history in a variety of ways, including through education, oral history, and art. We applied to the Millennium Commission, and were awarded a grant of £25,000 in 1999. The project: 
• Worked with local primary schools to look at Filton’s history, collect local  and create a mural. A CD and resource pack were created for use by Filton’s primary schools into the future.
• Recorded conversations with Filton residents about living and working in Filton. This was published as ‘Filton Talking’, and formed the first of a series of local oral history books.
• Commissioned an artist to create 3 panels reflecting Filton in the 20th Century. These now hang in Filton Library’s foyer.
  
  
• Oral history: Filton Community History Group continued to record and publish the oral history of Filton. In 2002 a Lotteries’ grant enabled them to employ a worker to carry on this work, and the resulting interviews were published professionally by Tempus as ‘Filton Voices’ in December 2003.
  
• Filton Heritage Leaflet: This popular leaflet takes you on a historical walk round Filton. It was compiled by a local group in 2000 and printed by South Gloucestershire Council, and is available from Filton Library.
  
• Saving Filton House: Filton House was the striking Art Deco headquarters of The Bristol Aeroplane Company, built in 1935 , but by 1996  it had been vacated and allowed to fall into disrepair. A special group, the Friends of Filton House, was formed to try and save it. Over a number of years the group accumulated the historical evidence to campaign successfully for its listing as a Grade II building. As of 2006 we hope it is to be converted by Airbus as a training and conference centre.
  
• South Gloucestershire Aviation Website: The South Gloucestershire Aviation Website formed part of a national initiative to digitise local history and make it accessible on the Internet. Filton People gave advice, support, information and material for the website, http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk/

Newsletters, guides and reports

Over the years we have produced a number of useful newsletters, reports and information sheets - see Our newsletters, guides and reports for details.