Council Spotlight: Yate Town Council

Yate Town Council has an estimated population of 22,000 and a precept of £1.3m. Their budget of £1.8m is spent on services, facilities and projects to enhance the local area and support the community.

As well as juggling day-to-day “business as usual” (at their Youth Venue and Café, Older Persons Café, Heritage Centre, 5 other community buildings, as well as maintaining 12 play areas, 9 parks and open spaces, 2 MUGAs, skateboard/BMX Park and tennis, bowling, football, hockey and athletics sports facilities).

The last year has been particularly busy, which includes:

• Finished the biggest project in the Town Council’s history – refurbishment of the running track and athletics facility at Yate Outdoor Sports Complex (YOSC), to prevent loss of use of the facility for thousands of annual visitors. The project cost in the region of £836,000 - much of which was raised through fundraising (Sport England) and S106 monies. In January last year, we welcomed HRH Princess Royal to YOSC to celebrate the work of the council and of the volunteers who operate the site day-to-day
• They also undertook a further project at YOSC to completely replace the all-weather pitch for £242,802, again successfully attracting external funding from Enovert Trust, Ibstock Trust, Sports England and SUEZ
• Purchased and refurbished an at-risk town centre landmark building (previously owned by the YMCA for the last century)
• Extended the changing rooms/added disabled facilities at Sunnyside football changing rooms, funded via s106 funding
• Installed enhanced/DDA compliant public toilets in Kingsgate Park, which was awarded the best park for the 2nd year running by South West in Bloom
• Undertook a large consultation - “Yate Ageing Better” and are now rolling out the findings to improve and work towards making Yate a more age-friendly community
• Made improvements to several play areas, as well as installing an outdoor gym, and launched “Happy to Chat” benches at several sites across the town
• Continued a mix of centre-based and detached youth provision, utilising YTC’s mobile youth vehicle and maintained a commitment to youth provision despite the local authority withdrawing
• Installed the first phase of defibrillators throughout the town
• Hosted community events including an Easter Egg Hunt, St George’s celebrations, a Remembrance Parade and Service, x2 Christmas Carol Concerts as well as a free Yate Rocks! community music festival attracting over 7,000 visitors over 2 days which saw us as a finalist in the NOEA (National Outdoor Events Association) Awards
• Applied for Arts Council accreditation for our Heritage Centre and are exploring the feasibility of extending the building.

Throughout 2020, Yate Town Council plans to:

• Work on a project to build a new home for the local boxing club, for which £100,000 funding has been awarded from Sport England
• Work in partnership with key stakeholders to bring a new community building to the town
• Roll out the “Zero Tolerance to Graffiti” scheme
• Pursue the council’s commitment to becoming Carbon Neutral
• Design and launching a new website
• Introduce a Mayor’s Cadet scheme and
• Host a twinning visit with the new Mayor of Bad Salzdetfurth & colleagues.