Community Buildings Audit

Bristol City Council is undertaking an audit of community premises in order to map every community facility in Bristol. This information will enable the council to identify any gaps in community building infrastructure and to plan more efficiently to help meet community needs in the future.

This project is undertaken jointly by the Community Development, Property Services and Corporate GIS teams. The results from the audit will be shared with other departments and teams across the council and used to inform the planning of future services.

We are making contact with every known community facility in Bristol, on a ward by ward basis. We have already carried out some initial pilots during 2009 and we are now working with other council departments and outside agencies to identify all community facilities not already known to us.

If you manage a community facility in Bristol or have a building that is available for hire for community activities, one of our team members may contact you between October 2010 - March 2011. If we are unable to contact you directly, we may send you a survey form by post, or email you a link to the online version, for you to complete.

Map

The initial results of the audit have been mapped and can be viewed on our interactive map . Further data will be added in the future. Please contact us if your community venue is not yet listed or if any listed information is incorrect.

The Survey

The survey will ask for details of the different activities and facilities available at your premises, so that we can build up a complete picture of where these facilities are located, what they are used for, when they are used, who uses them and how suitable they are.

The survey process consists of two separate parts:

1)  a survey to gather general information about the organisation that manages the premises, the use and the suitability of the premises

2)  a ‘diary sheet’ on which to record detailed information about the activities taking place during a ‘typical week’ in each of the useable rooms/spaces at the premises

To make it quicker and easier for premises managers to provide the information requested, the survey is designed to be completed on-line and the ‘diary sheet’ can be downloaded and submitted electronically. We would urge you to submit your details electronically, if it all possible. Paper versions will still be available for organisations that do not have access to the internet.

The online survey can be accessed through this link:  www.bristol.gov.uk/cba

The diary sheet can be downloaded from the link at the bottom of this page.

Use of the data

What we plan to do with the information we collect as part of this audit:

• The details of your premises will be entered onto a database that will list every community facility in Bristol. The council will use this information to build up a detailed overview of community facilities across the city.
• The Community Development Team will also add relevant premises details to our Community Centre Finder, and maps of community buildings on this website.
• The Property Services Team will use the premises details for asset management planning and other property-related functions of the council.
• It is anticipated that the information will also be shared with other departments within the council, eg the Planning Department, the local Neighbourhood Partnerships, the Young People Services team, and others.
• We plan to use our audit findings to discuss the provision of community infrastructure with our partners in the voluntary sector, eg Voscur, BDA, Young Bristol, and others.

We hope that the complete list of community buildings & facilities will also be a useful marketing tool for organisations that wish to hire out their building. We will list each premises with contact details for bookings or enquiries, and a link to their websites and some general information about the facilities available in each building.

We will not include any details which you do not wish to be published in the list, eg home telephone numbers or private email addresses.

Diary sheet

Please download the ‘diary sheet’ from the link below. The ‘diary sheet’ is a spreadsheet file on which you can record all the relevant details about your premises.  You should then save the file to your computer and send it to us as an attachment to an email.

Please email the completed diary sheet file to us at:  community.buildings@bristol.gov.uk

Contacts

To discuss the audit and its purpose in more detail, or if you have a query about any council-owned community facilities, please contact John Bos, the council's Community Buildings Manager:

Tel:  0117 903 6440
Email:  john.bos@bristol.gov.uk

For enquiries relating to property ownership, asset management or GIS matters please contact:

Tel:  0117 903 7620  
Email:  prop_database@bristol.gov.uk  quoting "Community Buildings Audit"

If you wish to return your paper survey form and 'diary sheet' by post, please send them to our freepost address (no stamp needed):

Community Buildings Audit (NH/BH)
FREEPOST BS4341
PO BOX 595
BRISTOL
BS99 2BR