Residents come together to #LoveGrangetown

On Saturday 23^rd April residents attended the community consultation event #LoveGrangetown 2016 hosted by Community Gateway, one of Cardiff University’s five flagship engagement projects.

The purpose of the event was to feedback what the project has achieved in the last 12 months and to discuss with local residents what else they would like to see happening in Grangetown and give them an opportunity to get involved.

Last year the consultation identified nine key themes: Safe Grangetown, Provision for Young People, Healthy Grangetown, Green Streets & Clean Spaces, Communication without Barriers, Community Meeting Places, Friendly Communities, Shop & Work Locally and Road Safety. Residents were then asked to submit their ideas for projects to Community Gateway that would fit within these nine themes - the response was overwhelming with over 127 expressions of interest submitted. These have resulted in Community Gateway supporting over 37 live projects including a philosophy café, a community garden, numerous litter picks, mental health and wellbeing day, residents running the IAAF Cardiff Half Marathon and many other successful projects based in Grangetown.

#LoveGrangetown 2016 also saw the announcement of Community Gateway’s successful bid for the licence of the Grange Bowls Pavilion which will be used as a community hub for the next 12 months with hope to transfer ownership to the community after this time. Residents that attended #LoveGrangetown on Saturday were asked for ideas as to how the pavilion could be used to benefit the community and were also asked for their opinions on using the pavilion regularly as a pop up community café.  In addition to providing Community Gateway with ideas, visitors were also encouraged to get involved and make pledges to help make Grangetown an even better place.

Lynne Thomas, Community Gateway’s project Manager said of the event: “#LoveGrangetown 2016 has provided us with some fantastic feedback and provoked some great discussions among project team members, Grangetown residents and staff at Cardiff University. We can now look at all the information we have gathered and be sure that, as we move forward, we are engaging with local people and that the project continues to be shaped by their input in order to deliver what the community really wants in their local area.”

If you want to find out more about Community Gateway or want to get involved please get in touch: communitygateway@cardiff.ac.uk or follow us on Twitter @CommunityGtwy.