The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games has opened nominations for people who would like to apply to be a Batonbearer for the Queen’s Baton Relay in England. The criteria for a Batonbearer in England is someone who meets one or more of the following: 

·         Is always willing to take on a challenge and has a unique and inspiring story

·         Has made a meaningful contribution to sport, education, the arts, culture, or charity

·         Is a figure of inspiration that positively challenges others to achieve their best

·         Has taken on a challenge or cause and made a positive impact within their community

The Queen’s Baton Relay will travel to every region in England, before arriving at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games on 28 July. Nominations will be open until 14 February. 

More information:
http://www.birmingham2022.com/queens-baton-relay/batonbearer-nominations/

Gloucester’s Bright Nights festival will once again light up the city with an array of light installations that will welcome and delight visitors through the remaining winter months.

 

Launched in November last year, the festival is backed by local partners including Gloucester Business Improvement District and has been supported by funding from Arts Council England. 

 

For the second part of the programme, which will run until March, Gloucester City Council has commissioned several exciting new installations bringing even more colour, light and joy to the city.

 

Highlights for 2022 include:

 

Windows Through Time

14 February – 1 March, Westgate Street

Award Winning Local artist, Jack Wimperis will be creating a new artwork highlighting the colourful past of this vibrant area. People have lived, worked, prayed, and played in Westgate Street since Roman times and each period in history has left its own mark making today’s street a precious historical record of how people lived in the past. To read more about the history of each of these windows, you can pick up a trail leaflet from the Cathedral Quarter’s HQ on Westgate Street.

18-20 February – celebrate the start of half-term with a number of activities on Westgate Street along including street performers. And St Stephen’s Church will throw open its doors for people to take a look inside this historic church which is rarely open to the public.

 

Glow Globes

February, various city centre locations

Discover ten giant Glow Globes dotted around the city, animated through snow and illuminated artworks. Scan the QR code on each one to watch the snow dance in the globes.

The art inside the globes has been created by South West artist Maya Wolf who took inspiration from local children’s favourite parts of Gloucester history of Gloucester. Each globe will tell its own story about the city’s past.

 

Luma

18 – 19 February, Gloucester Cathedral

Luma is a huge interactive robot; an 8m long, inflatable snail who loves an audience.  She looms above visitors with a presence which is gentle, welcoming, and otherworldly.  Made almost entirely made from fabric which allows her movement to reflect the flexible and contorting motion found within the animal kingdom. The joyful and hopeful artwork champions both nature and technology, and reimagines what robots can do.

 

Illuminated Swim

3-6 March, GL1

Inspired by the paintings of Rothko, multi-award winning designer Dr Tine Bech has created a beautiful artwork which you can swim in. Illuminated Swim is an immersive and playful light installation where participants can experience diving into a giant pool of light. Coloured clouds hover over the water, gently changing as people float, swim and play.

Tine is working in collaboration with Gloucester-based The Music Works team to design a soundtrack for the installation. More information on ticket booking to be announced in the coming weeks.

I have lost count of how many potholes I have reported on Scott Avenue over recent years. The patches hold for a few days, before coming loose again. The road now looks like a ‘patchwork’.

What it needs, and what I have called for, is a proper resurface. Sadly, the Conservatives at Shire Hall have consistently failed to allocate resources for this. In fact they have cut the budget spent on our roads.

The road gets regular use, and because of parked cars, it is more heavily used down one side. Long-term, this should also be looked at in any future traffic management plans.

I will continue to press the Conservative-run county council for better roads and pavements in our area.

I dropped in to Duke of Beaufort Court to thank manager Sharon Syme for her work in the area, as she departs for a new home and new role.

The details of the role at Duke of Beaufort Court are here if you are interested in applying, or know anyone who might be.

We wish Sharon all the best for the future.

I undertook a walkabout with the Heritage Engagement officer from the city council, who is working in the city to add buildings to the local heritage list. We identified a number of buildings to consider.

You can find out more about this process here. You can also nominate an asset yourself via this page.

More progress at Milton Avenue as some whips (trees) are planted and some bird boxes installed.

Tenders are going out this week for work on the pond.

In addition to this, work on the play area is ongoing, and there was recently a volunteer day.

My thanks to council officers for their work on the ESIF project and Lisa Jevins who is leading on the play area project for Podsmead Big Local, as well as anyone giving up their time to help improve the area.

The street sign at Laburnum Road has been replaced at long last.

This was previously showing ‘2-54 Evens’ which is incorrect, as the houses go up to 56. It was causing problems for deliveries and service access.

There was some confusion and delay, and it has taken a lot of chasing up to get to where we are now.

But in the end we have got the result we needed and I am grateful to the officers who sorted this at last.

If you know of any other street signs that need attention in our area please let me know.

The sink hole I reported last week on Masefield Avenue has been patched.

It has the word ‘temp’ sprayed across it so I assume this is a temporary fix before it gets properly dealt with.

I will keep pressing for more to be done to fix our roads and pavements.

Residents made me aware of some fly-tipping that took place in Podsmead. They had contacted the council and we were pleased to see that after a council investigation, a fine was issued and other action taken.

The council enviro crime team take these matters very seriously and are operating a robust approach to fly-tipping in the city.

An officer writes:

‘Since the introduction of the team back in September we have investigated 100s of reports of fly-tipping offences throughout Gloucester, and have issued 82 fixed penalty notices to date.

We are also actively working with other agencies and housing Providers in looking at initiatives to prevent and deter problems relating to waste management and fly-tipping.’

Well done to all involved. Do let me know if you spot any fly-tipping in our area.

GARAS (Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers) are appealing for clothing donations.

You can take clean, good quality clothing to St Aldate’s Church GL4 6TR, on any weekday between 9am and 2pm. They are particularly keen to receive men’s clothing currently.