News / Your Park Bristol & Bath
Your Park transform park to make it more accessible and inclusive
Grassroots charity Your Park Bristol has completed work on its first major park transformation project.
Hartcliffe Millennium Green in Bristol now reimagined to make them more accessible and inclusive for their local communities.
The park has undergone a £95,000 transformation, making it one of the first parks in the UK to be designed to be accessible for people with all physical disabilities and impairments.
is needed now More than ever
In collaboration with local disabled people, carers and the park’s Friends of Group, the charity has delivered improvements including a wider entranceway, smooth resurfaced paths, sensory markers, raised planters, new gates and additional seating.
A large shelter has also been installed to create a welcoming space for young people, while a sensory garden, designed specifically for people with sensory disabilities, will be planted this spring.
People attended for the launch of the park – photo: Mark Simmons
Charlee Bennett, chief executive of Your Park Bristol & Bath, said: “We are incredibly proud to have completed this exemplar park project. Seeing first-hand the real benefits the community gets from the reimagined space is so rewarding.
“This is just the start of our ambition to reimagine parks and green spaces across our two cities and we hope they will demonstrate how simple changes can have enormous impact on local peoples’ lives.
“We’re so grateful to the local people that shared their experiences and gave their time to help us shape the plans for these two parks, as well as our funders and everybody involved in the transformations.
“We all need and benefit from time spent in nature, so it’s vital everyone can access spaces on their doorstep. Plans are already underway to start reimagining more parks in Bristol and Bath, so watch this space”
Hartcliffe Millennium Green is a vital site for people living in BS13 – photo: Mark Simmons
Jan Bohin from Friends of Hartcliffe Millennium Green said: “We know how important this park is to local people and the challenges many of them have faced previously – whether that’s being able to get through the gate, or because of anti-social behaviour making people not feel safe.
“We’ve worked over the last five years to change that and it’s been great working with Your Park Bristol & Bath, Bristol city councillors and the parks department and our volunteers to bring our funding together to ensure we can make the changes that will benefit so many people.”
The projects are part of Your Park Bristol & Bath’s Reimagining Parks campaign, which launched in 2024 to tackle the barriers it estimates keeps a third of Bristol and Bath’s population shut out or struggling to access them.
The biggest barriers it identified include physical accessibility, personal safety and mental wellbeing. The groups most likely to be excluded were disabled people and their carers, women and girls, minority ethnic groups and those in low-income areas.
Funding for these transformations came from multiple sources and demonstrates a true collaborative effort to reimagine these parks.
Those that contributed include the John James Foundation, Postcode Local Trust, UK Shared Prosperity Fund, alongside CIL funding from Bristol City Council and public donations to the Reimagining Parks campaign.
All photos: Mark Simmons
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
