Here at Community Spaces we love to share all your stories!

Vicki Rooke from Bournville Area Residents Association sent her story in to us about how their group triumphed in improving their local neighbourhood!

The Chocolate Garden was an idea first born 3 and a half years ago by residents of ‘The Bournville’ in Weston super Mare.  They attended a  ‘ Spaces by Design’ training course at Trafford Hall in Cheshire and worked with landscape designers to think of ideas on how to transform a currently derelict area of wasteland in the heart of their neighbourhood.

After 3 years of consultation and publicity, the group have finally achieved their dream!  The group decided to create a community garden, opposite the already popular children’s’ park and right next to the shops, which could be a quiet, peaceful area for people to sit and enjoy.

The garden was named the Chocolate Garden because the neighbourhood is called ‘The Bournville’, named like the famous chocolate made by Cadburys.  The garden will have seating and planting beds, and a wall with a 27m long mural painted on it, which will depict the history of chocolate, right through from the cocoa bean from the rainforests to the chocolate that we know and love today.

Realising this dream involved presenting to the local housing association to be gifted the land, fundraising money to pay a Landscape Architect to turn ideas into reality, undertaking extensive consultation with the community, obtaining planning permission and an awful lot of fundraising!!

The group have fundraised £108,000, of which nearly £50,000 came from Community Spaces – this was a massive boost and meant the garden could go ahead!

After drawing up tenders and choosing contractors, work finally started on the garden in November 2010.

We hope the garden will be finished just before Christmas and we are planning a launch party in January 2011!

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