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Annual General Meeting

Fri, 28 May 2021 09:24:46 GMT

Annual General Meeting

All are welcome to our Annual General Meeting
on Thursday 24th June 2021 at 7pm.

If you are interested in becoming a member or being nominated to our Board, please email or call us for more information. You will need to complete your application no later than 21st June 2021. *Please note ONLY registered members can be nominated to the board.

Join the meeting via Zoom via the link or by clicking the button below.

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86722270483

Meeting ID: 867 2227 0483

Passcode: 095829

At 7.30pm following the AGM, we have the pleasure of introducing

Helen Howson

The Director of the Bevan Commission and the Bevan Commission Academy.

Helen has played a lead role in the establishment of the Commission and in its challenging work programme, particularly Prudent Healthcare. Helen was instrumental in establishing the Bevan Academy, Bevan Innovators and transformation programmes, helping to drive its thinking into practice.

She will be providing an overview of the Bevan Commission and highlighting Bevan Exemplars, who are big thinkers from every part of the NHS in Wales. They are committed to driving transformational change in their Health Boards and Trusts.

For more information

Email: info@bronllyswellbeingpark.org

Tel: Jacqui Wilding on 0772511199

Robert Owen's Legacy of Good Housing

Thu, 20 May 2021 09:32:16 GMT

Robert Owen’s legacy of good housing

Allan Shepherd traces the lineage of Robert Owen's ideas right through to today’s community-led housing movement.

AMay marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of co-operative housing pioneer Robert Owen. Born in Newtown, Powys he made his way up from apprentice, via a circuitous working tour of England and Scotland, to mill owner and finally revered Utopian thinker – what we might call now a global influencer. The gift of Robert Owen was to be in possession of wealth and humanity.

He created in New Lanark Mills one of the most advanced social programmes for housing and education of its day, believing that a person’s environment had an impact on the formation of character. As Chris Coates suggests in his energetic history of community housing Utopia Britannica, this led him to propose ‘the foundation of infant and other schools, to form the new character in the rising population’.

The rising population would very much still be employed in his factories, but it was a model of paternalistic advancement that at least offered some resistance to the worst excesses of the violent dehumanising onslaught that was the industrial revolution. His work appealed to a large number of what became known as Owenite followers. They took what they learnt from Owen and moulded his thinking into their own schemes.

Some of these schemes had more success than others, but it is possible to trace the lineage of ideas right through to today’s community led housing movement. Many of us who have lived in community led housing projects have felt the same Owenite tension and excitement when deciding our own housing destiny as a group, not as individuals in a market economy, or as state reliant actors, subject to the politics of the day. History is circular not linear. We are still up against the same forces that existed 250 years ago. Rogue landlords. Rampant capitalism. Bad housing.

It is up to the community led housing movement to offer some answers. In England there has been a flourishing in recent years because grants from central government have been distributed to community groups. This is the only way most schemes can create affordable housing. These grants are not enough on their own and the Owenite schemes of today (without the paternalism!) are those which harness the wealth, imagination and skills of the wider community to deliver projects.

Schemes like LILAC in Leeds , where each resident puts in 35% of their income towards a joint mortgage; Chapeltown Cohousing (also in Leeds), which uses a joint ownership and loan stock model; Yorspace in York , which has developed a dual community land trust/housing coop structure to bring in community share investment; and Student Co-op Homes , which is doing something similar but on a national level.

In Wales we have some distance to travel before we harness the same levels energy and momentum from what is after all in its roots a Welsh legacy. But it is there in smaller housing co-ops like Dragons Housing Co-operative close to Owen’s birth town in Powys, Brithdir Mawr in Pembrokeshire, now also a Community Benefit Society and Golem Housing Co-operative in Swansea. And in emerging community groups we are supporting across Wales – in Bron Llys, Aberdyfi, the Gower, Pembrokeshire, Cardiff, the Llyn, all of which want to create bigger schemes that hope to transform their communities and provide the affordable housing they need.

Robert Owen never quite managed to export his own housing success story outside of the factory environment, despite several attempts. His greatest failure was New Harmony, a scheme he created in Pennsylvania. The same is true of other Owenite schemes, which met many potholes on the road paved with good intentions. But even when communal aspects of these projects didn’t stand the test of time they often left behind them a legacy of good housing, much of which is still being enjoyed by people today. Or the projects lived on in other ways, in lessons learnt or lives changed. As a former colleague of mine at the Centre for Alternative Technology, another Owenite community that lasted forty years, was often heard to say, ‘failure is the compost of success’. Sometimes we will fail but in failure we will always learn. And whatever grows next will live in richer soil. If you are a gardener you will appreciate my call to double dig that thinking in to everything we do.

Penblwydd hapus Robert Owen!

We Have Lift Off!

Tue, 18 May 2021 12:00:06 GMT

The launch of the 'Next Ten Years'

The Launch of our "Next Ten Years" document on 27th April was a sensational, ground-breaking success, with over 100 sign-ups and four inspirational speakers, all strongly encouraging us to get on with creating the Bronllys Well Being Park.

And to set the mood for the event, we were encouraged by our youngest member – 5-year-old Gaia, eloquently representing our future generations – to remember that a small group of committed people can make a difference, can indeed bring about change. She was followed by Sophie Howe, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales – the only one in the world! – who set out the work and aims of her Commission. Among many other things, she called for a National Wellness System, for a Universal Basic Income, and embedding kindness in everything we do. She referred to Wilful Blindness on the part of some public bodies, called for co-operation and dialogue and encouraged us to continue with the efforts to bring about the Well Being Park at our much-loved Bronllys Community Hospital.

Tom Chance, CEO of the National Community Land Trust Network, talked of the threat of

gentrification and of the need for the community to own the land if it is to ensure lasting affordable housing and other vital assets. Dave Palmer of Communities Creating Homes,

called for healthier homes built to last for at least one hundred years and for co-operation

between the Powys Teaching Health Board and Bronllys Well Being Park CLT.

Max Comfort questioned the stance adopted by that Health Board, called on them to transparently publish their plans for the Bronllys Community Hospital site, and expressed surprise at their rejection of so many of the Well Being Park proposals. Proposals, he maintained, that would serve the present communities of Bronllys, Talgarth, Hay and others nearby, but which would also prepare for the generations yet to come.

We reminded the audience the vision and aspirations are not yet supported by Powys Teaching Health Board. However we remain optimistic of working collaboratively with the Powys Teaching Health Board and Powys County Council. We hope the huge endorsements we’ve received from so many people for the Well Being Park proposals will enable us to persuade the PTHB to join us around a table to discuss ways of realising these exciting plans.

Finally, a message was read from the Archbishop of Wales, the Right Reverend John Davies, encouraging everyone to support our work in whatever way they can and to convince others regarding the initiative’s undoubted worth.

Already messages of congratulation and support are coming in to our offices noting the success of the Launch and increasing our membership.

A video recording of the event is available on our website www.bronllyswellbeingpark.org with a special endorsement from Michael Sheen! A flipper page copy of the “Next Ten Years” document is available on the site.

Please contact us for hard copies or further information on Tel: 07725 111799.

Next Ten Years

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 13:32:58 GMT

Dear Friends, Members and Colleagues,

Our Proposals for Our Wonderful Bronllys Community Hospital Site.

If you care about your local community and are concerned about the many challenges it faces, you really need to attend this ground-breaking event.

Why?

Because we are delighted to tell you that the world's first and only Future Generations Commissioner, Sophie Howe, one of the Top 100 Business Women in Wales will be the keynote speaker at the launch of our

Bronllys Well Being Park “Next Ten Years” Document.

As many of you already know, this is another “first” for Wales: an innovative and imaginative proposal that finally secures the future of our Community Hospital.

We are advocating a wide range of initiatives that will augment the vital existing facilities and increase the well being of the residents of Bronllys, Talgarth, Hay and surrounding communi?es. We are calling for improved transport, aﬀordable housing, sustainable energy, and locally-based employment opportunities, all aimed at enabling us to fully utilise and enjoy the extensive and beautiful grounds of this precious community asset.

Joining Sophie will be AM Kirsty Williams and Helen Howson, CEO, The Bevan Commission. Kirsty comments on the Bronllys Well Being Park plans: “The concept is quite simply inspirational: collaboration between local people and public bodies, and keeps the much-loved Bronllys Hospital at the heart of our local communities.

You may have seen the posters we’ve put up, and you may have spoken to your neighbours about it. We hope you will all come to help us launch this amazing project, which has the ear of prominent people like Sophie, Kirsty and Helen, and the wholehearted endorsement of the Archbishop of Wales, local Councillors and residents.

Sophie has spoken of "the people who see a diﬀerent way of doing things and are unafraid to call out those with their blinkers on… I get my hope from this growing number of frustrated champions out there agitating, ruﬄing feathers, speaking truth to power and challenging leaders to make it a reality."

Like so many other people now, she recognises that the plans for Bronllys Community Hospital are

timely, necessary and an inspiring exemplar of what can be done with an active and determined community.

Please click the button below and join us on 27 April.

Better yet, invite your family, friends and neighbours to this event, which could well shape our community for years to come. We look forward to “seeing” you then.

Arwain Leader Grant Funding

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 14:31:04 GMT

We are very grateful to our Arwain Leader grant funders for all their support, funding, monitoring and ongoing assistance we have received over the last three years.

Our thanks to all the volunteers, mentors, team members and of course - Board Members, past and present for all their hard work and achievements from all those involved in getting us to this point. Our grant is aimed to support seven feasibility studies including:

Housing
Transport
Energy
Food
Leisure
Well-being

Plus the sustainability of the above through implementations and recommendations.

We have also developed Eco Housing, Transport and Wellbeing Networks.

We are currently collating all the details and performance indicators to ensure our Arwain commitment is fully met. We are unfortunately having to complete the service agreements with our team members as their contracts come to and end on the 31st March 2021. We have, however, been given an extension to the project timing of three months, albeit with no further funding to enable us to complete all our feasibility studies, networks and hubs. We wish to highlight and thank Hedda Project Development Officer for her work on the final five studies and for assisting in the development of our well-being network.