Community Centre

Another Excellent Christmas lunch!
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Another Excellent Christmas lunch!

A huge thank you to everyone who came along and made this year’s Christmas lunch such a success. We’re so glad so many of you could make it. A big thank you to Pip Weaver, Jon Gore and David Stares from the Orchestra of Everything for their festive entertainment.

Thank you also to Dave for his mulling expertise – the mulled wine and cider was very popular.

We made a wonderful £111 from the raffle, which will help to fund future Widcombewest events. Well done to the children who diligently sold tickets and announced the winning numbers!

A special thanks to Annette for organising us all, printing the leaflets, purchasing the supplies needed and hosting our planning meeting at her house.

There’s plenty of space at St Mark’s Community Centre so we hope even more of you can make it next year. If you’d like to get involved in organising future Widcombewest events, please do get in touch.

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Community Barbecue

Sunday July 23rd from 5pm

Once again this year widcombewest residents are organising a summer social event in the garden of St Mark’s Community Centre. Everyone is welcome and entrance is free!
Please bring some food for the barbecue and whatever you like to drink. Any extras for sharing eg salads, nibbles, will always much appreciated.
Some live music will be provided, and a raffle will be held for charity. Above all, this will be a great opportunity to relax, socialise and meet your neighbours.
Donations for the raffle will be welcome! Please bring on the day or contact Helen at 28 St Mark’s Road hpeterwidcombe@gmail.com.
Any other queries regarding this event please contact Gordon gordon@penbryn.com at 4 St Mark’s Road or Annette vanmaurik54@gmail.com at 4 Lyncombe Hill.

See you there….!

Summer Barbecue 2015

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Cycle Shelter Build

Cycle Shelter Build – Day 1

Many thanks to everyone who turned out for Day 1 in March to help kick start the cycle shelter project. We had a really successful weekend of clearing and making the site ready for a secure community bike store at St Marks Community Centre. Day 2 of the bike store build is this weekend 8/9th April. The main build will be on Saturday with Sunday currently penciled in should we overrun.

We need willing volunteers that can help for a couple of hours, especially any with electric screwdrivers. There will be some lifting, possibly more ground clearing and the decking to construct so there’s plenty of work for all abilities! We are also planning a BBQ, refreshments for all and guaranteed sunshine!

Look forward to seeing you all on the day – we will be starting around 10:00 am.

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Community Centre Update

centre2The Trustees of St Marks Community Centre have now been in place for eighteen months; in this time, they have addressed some key issues, such as formalising required policy documents, undertaking a quinquennial fabric survey and publishing Terms and Conditions of Hire. The trustees have also been considering the future of the centre, seeking to ensure its long term sustainability, identifying opportunities for increasing usage, whilst aiming to enhance the environment for existing loyal user groups.

Two open days are planned at the Centre; the first, on Sunday 13th November from 4pm – 6pm will be a low-key event, where any locals or interested users can drop in to the centre and talk to some of the trustees, have a cup of tea, share any concerns as well as look at potential opportunities; the second, scheduled for May 2017 is expected to be a more lively affair, with presentations from the trustees and input from the long-term users to illustrate some of the challenges facing the centre in an age of decreasing community involvement.  Date and time for this will be confirmed in due course.

Click here for more information on the St Mark’s Community Centre.

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Community Bookshelf

bookshelfA new community bookshelf has been provided within the outer lobby of St Marks Community Centre.
Please drop in any time the outer door is open to borrow, buy, exchange books or add to the bookshelf as you wish. All types of books within reason for all ages.

All that we ask is that you consider making a small donation to the continuing maintenance of the Community Centre. There is a donations box next to the bookshelf.

The trustees hope this facility will be welcomed as a small step forward in making our Community Centre work better for local residents in addition to its current user groups.

Please send any additional ideas for other community use of the lobby space to Alex at sykesbath@talktalk.net.

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Community Barbecue 2016

bbq2015The widcombewest community barbecue was held on Saturday 9th of June. Once again it was a great success with over 50 people of all ages enjoying a lovely warm evening in the gardens of St Marks Community Centre. Several newcomers were warmly welcomed. We also held a raffle which the proceeds of which will go towards funding more of our events.

Many thanks to those of you who donated prizes and those who supplied barbecues, your contributions were much appreciated.

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St Mark’s Community Centre Update

Parking and Pavement Repairs

As you will have noticed, the parking and pavement area around the for the Community centre has been fenced off for several weeks and scaffolding has been erected along the south façade. On one of our regular building checks, we noticed that part of the ageing architecture needs securing and that has now happened. Whilst we hoped to undertake most of this work within the half-term holiday, the stone repairs proved more extensive than anticipated, and new stone can not be hurried! St Mark’s is a lovely old building, but does need a fair amount of care and maintenance, so thanks very much to all our neighbours and tenants for their forbearance; particularly the Acorns team and the Curtis Dance Academy and their members/users for their understanding and patience during this time.

Call for Trustees

We’re currently looking for more volunteers from the local Widcombe and user group communities who might be interested in becoming a trustee for the Community Centre. We meet every few months and share out a range of responsibilities, from finance to building care, publicity and legal queries. If you would like to know more – without any obligation – please contact Chris Jones at chair@st-marks-cc.org.uk. We are especially under-represented by dance class attendees/parents, and we’d love to have some new enthusiasts to join the team.

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Our Next FilmNight – Sunday 28 February!

grease

GREASE is the Word!

Sunday 28 February
St Mark’s Community Centre

Come and watch this classic movie with friends, family and neighbours…

Sing along to “You’re the One That I Want”, “Greased Lightning”, “Summer Nights” and all the other great tracks

Bring your own drinks to wash down the free popcorn

Get in the 50s groove by dressing up in period gear

Just £2 per person to cover costs

Doors open at 6.00pm, programme begins at 6.30pm

Don’t be Sandra Dee – just be there!

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Pinnacle Peril Leads to Pavement Closure

At the end of November, the St Marks Community Centre underwent a ‘quinquennial survey’ – that is an inspection of the building fabric that is scheduled to happen every five years. This survey identified that the building was generally in good shape, but that some of the decorative stone ‘pinnacles’ on the roof had deteriorated and showed signs of cracking. The trustees moved quickly to obtain quotes from stonemasons to undertake the necessary repair works, and in the course of these further specialist inspections, additional problems with some of the pinnacles on the south side of the building were identified. This led us to alert the Council to the potential risk, whilst the Centre proceeds with appointing a suitably qualified stonemason to undertake removal/necessary repairs. As a precaution, the Council have chosen to close the pavement immediately below the south façade, together with the adjacent parking bays. The centre aims to get the works done as quickly as possible, although this may necessitate listed buildings approval and the erection of a scaffold along the pavement in order to safely undertake the works.

Disabled Parking Bay St Mark’s Road

There is an advisory disabled bay situated at the very end of the suspended permit bays in St Marks Rd almost in the turning circle. This is used by a resident of no. 25 who is unable to walk more than 10 metres and is in possession of a blue badge.

After discussing with Building Control, the location of this bay is such that it is safe to allow vehicles to park here. To ensure that this remaining advisory disabled bay is available for this resident so that they can continue to remain mobile during this suspension the suspension signage will be modified to allow for this residents vehicle only to park in this location.

From Andrew Dunn
Team Manager – Parking Services
Environmental Services
Bath & North East Somerset Council

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Widcombe Open Chapel Trail

Sunday September 13th 2015, 2-5pm

chapel trailAn opportunity to visit eight of the fascinating religious buildings throughout Widcombe as part of Heritage Open Days.

Open Chapels: Widcombe Baptist Church, First Church of Christ Scientist, Eyre Mortuary Chapel, RC Cemetary Chapel, St Thomas à Becket Church, St Mary Magdalan Chapel, St Mark’s Community Centre

Teas will be available at St Thomas à Becket Church.

More information on this event can be found here on the Widcombe Association website.

Information on other local events for 2015 can be found here on the Bath Preservation Trust website.