A commmunity event will be held at Southside Youth Centre, Kelston View, on Friday 17th April from 4.30pm to 8.30pm. This is to mark the launch of a 2 year project to regenerate the centre with £2 million of funding from the Government's Myspace programme.

The community event will feature workshops and performances by groups, and you can give your views as to how the centre should develop. Planned additions to the youth centre building include: a patio area for barbecues, a community cafe, kitchen area, music studio, ICT suite, sports facilities, disabled access and a sensory room for the disabled.

The Council's website says that young people will be able to enjoy activities such as basketball, trampolining, street dance, martial arts and music. There will also be house drug and alcohol support services, sexual health advice, training and employment advice, and counselling services. Two youth buses with multimedia and ICT equipment installed, will be available to the community and will complement services at the youth centre.

Joe, 09/04/09

A special event took place in Twerton on Tuesday night, when The Spot Crew played Grace Community Church in a friendly game of skittles at The Centurion Pub.

The Spot Crew is made up of parents who meet for Tea and Toast in The Spot community building by Twerton Infant School, on Monday mornings at 9am. This has become a fun group whose members sometimes have a go at different pursuits like photography and crafts. Tea and Toast helps parents to get to know each other and to make new friends.

Grace Community Church is a Twerton church that meets at the football ground on the first Sunday of the month and in people's homes the rest of the time. Some of its members are involved with The Spot - which is how the skittles match came to be organised.

The skittles alley at The Centurion has a lot more space than some pubs, so there was plenty of room for people to socialise and enjoy the buffet and music. A local lady named Danielle said, "I've had a really lovely evening." In the end The Spot Crew won the match, but only by a very narrow margin: 298 points to 292.

Joe, 07/04/09

Healthy Living Week is an annual event in which agencies across South West Bath join forces to put together a program of healthy activities for anyone to try. This year it goes from 30th April to 9th May and you can download a timetable of all the fun things to do, by clicking here.

Soon I will put all the info about what is happening each day on the web calendar. A glance at this year's program shows that there is something suitable for people of all ages and levels of fitness. Lots of games, sports and exercises such as walking, dancing and boxing, as well as educational stuff like cookery and fitness drop-in sessions.

The photo is of a Herb Walk organised by Carrs Woodland Forum as part of Healthy Living Week last year (this year they are doing a Bat Walk).

Joe, 06/04/09

Culverhay Sports Centre at the bottom of Rush Hill was bursting with activities on Saturday, as staff and sports clubs ran a day of taster sessions to demonstrate the wide range of different sports that can be enjoyed there.

For general fitness the sports centre offers several sorts of exercise class. The one I saw was circuit training where you have to move quickly from one exercise to another around the hall. There is also a really good gym equipped with something to test any muscle in your body.

There is an outdoor pitch which can be hired for football or basketball, and a swimming pool that is used for aqua aerobics, casual swimming and fun times with floats and giant 'hamster balls'. The hamster balls are amazing - you get inside one and use it to walk on the water.

Some local parents say it's hard to find things for kids to do, suggesting that Culverhay Sports Centre is underused locally - although it is easy to reach from Southdown, Whiteway and Twerton. Two activities that proved popular with the children on Saturday were rhythmic gymnastics and taekwondo. I made a video clip of both activities which you can see here.

Rhythmic gymnastics combines gymnastics and dance with a piece of equipment - either a ribbon, hoop, ball, rope or clubs - to produce a display to music. Simple moves can be taught even to small children, with several classes catering for different ages and levels of ability. For more information click here.

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art that is a lot like karate. The children who came to the taster session enjoyed seeing if they could do the kicks and punches they were taught on the pads and kick shields. For more information click here.

For details of other regular activities visit the sports centre website here.

More photos: weight training  exercise bikes

Joe, 05/04/09

Here are some points summarised from Councillors Paul Crossley and Dine Romero's e-newsletter for the Southdown Ward. To get the full newsletter by email, contact Paul Crossley .

Post office counter

At the last Southdown PACT meeting the need for a post office counter at Southdown was raised as a priority. The Co-op at Mount Road would be happy to host the counter and the Post Office management are asking for evidence of need and financial impact and viability.

Please sign the web petition here to show the Post Office that there is a demand. On the same web page there is a facility to print your own paper versions of the petition, if you want to help by collecting more signatures. Paul and Dine hope to put paper petitions in some of the Mount Road shops and to start a Facebook group.

20A/C bus service

First Bus do not want to continue operating the 20A/C circular route bus that passes through Southdown and Twerton. Lots of residents consider it worth supporting however. Wessex Connect are now hoping to operate the 20A/C route from 11th May and plan to improve its reliability through small alterations to its route and the use of larger buses.

Free swimming

From 1st April free swimming will be available to people aged 60 or over at Bath and North East Somerset Council's pools managed by Aquaterra Leisure. This includes the local swimming pool at Culverhay Sports Centre.

Meetings

The Southdown PACT meeting is coming up again - giving any local resident the opportunity to bring concerns and recommendations to representatives from the police, Councillors and other agencies. The next meeting will be held on 15th April from 6.30pm in Southdown Methodist Centre at The Hollow.

At the last Southdown PACT, a proposal went through to have another go at setting up a Friends of Roundhill group to help preserve and improve the nature resources at Twerton Roundhill.

A public meeting about this will be held on Tuesday 21st April at 7pm, in the YMCA building at the bottom of Roundhill, Mount Road. Please come along if you would be interested in getting involved in this group.

Information from newsletter, 03/02/09

When the fields near The Globe Inn get ploughed you can see dark patches which are all that remain of the 18th century coal works once situated there. The coal dust mixed in with the soil creates the patches. They are most visible when you follow the footpath through the Twerton campsite up over the hill and look down into the valley.

Left: an old map of the coal works; right: darkened soil reveals the site

In the Guildhall Records Office you can ask to see Thorpe's 1742 map of Bath. This tells you that the coal works belonged to Mr Harrington and there is even a small illustration of what they looked like. Were the buildings used for processing the coal in some way, or did they serve as dwellings for the miners? It would be fascinating to know more.

Joe, 02/01/09