Rodfords Mead

Hello and thanks for visiting!

In Winter 2023, WeCanMake and Black South West Network successfully secured preferred developer status for three small sites in South Bristol through Bristol City Council’s innovative Community-Led Housing Land Disposal Policy.

One of the sites we have secured is a former garage site between homes in Rodfords Mead – 660sqm of developable land at the end of a T-junction, situated between a row of terraced 1-2 storey homes, located in Hengrove just south of Airport Road.

Community participation

WeCanMake and residents of Hengrove have an amazing opportunity to reimagine the space between No. 32 and 34 Rodfords Mead. To help begin community conversations about what might be possible on the site, and to test different scales of development, we erected scaffolding and different sized timber blocks to create a pop-up 1:1 scale community prototyping space that ran for a day in summer 2022. It was a creative and engaging way to explore and surface different ideas about what kinds of uses would work and be a welcome addition to the neighbourhood.

From community conversations so far, we’ve listened and heard that affordable housing is a top priority for the neighbourhood. A cafe, bike repair shop, club house for young people, and gallery space were among the other ideas generated. Aside from future uses, the main thing we heard was that something needs to be done to keep the area tidy and clear of fly tipping.

With this in mind, we propose installing fencing to temporarily secure the site and open it up for regular community activities between mid-June and the end of October to explore community ideas for the future of this former garage site. By activating the space together with local people (and securing the area between events), we can begin to imagine and demonstrate how these ideas might look and feel on the ground.

who we are

WeCanMake is a community land trust and neighbourhood test-space with a people and place-led approach to housing development. We work with communities in South Bristol to collectively imagine and create affordable, low-carbon, community-led homes for local people.

More than just delivering ‘units’, affordable, community-led homes act as social infrastructure in a community, with ripples of value radiating out to foster the conditions for a thriving neighbourhood. Hengrove has little public space or infrastructure for shared social life – we would like to explore how by developing Rodfords Mead through a people-led approach could help activate and revitalise community cohesion.

Community spaces play a crucial role in providing residents with a sense of belonging and offer a place for people to foster a sense of shared purpose. The shortage of these spaces has created an environment where people are less able to interact with their neighbours, resulting in increased loneliness and isolation. Exploring how development can help support collective stewardship and create opportunities for shared activities will be central to our community engagement process.

System demonstrator

Rodfords Mead is one of three small sites secured for community-led development through Bristol City Council’s Land Disposal Policy. The aim is to use the three small sites as a system demonstrator for how to unlock this typology of site for community-led development in a way that is replicable and scalable – both within Bristol and elsewhere and by others in the wider community-led sector.

Each site could support a low-rise block of 3-4 storeys with between 5-10 homes, with the potential for ground floor community use. Infill sites like these are often considered too small or tricky for conventional commercial development. However, the community-led sector is well-placed to operate at this scale. Unlocking small sites through a community-led approach could:

• Make a significant contribution to meeting local housing need by creating an additional supply of
  permanently affordable homes. Evidence that these types of sites could provide up to 20% of
  housing need in urban areas;
• Provide a more sustainable alternative to both greenfield sprawl and high-rise blocks by
  adapting and “gently densifying” the existing urban fabric;
• Diversify current housing provision, enabling infrastructure and assets to adapt to better meet
  the needs and aspirations of diverse people and places;
• Help catalyse infrastructure and assets to support the social and ecological development and
  stewardship of neighbourhoods;
• Plug into and grow localised, low carbon supply-chains of labour and biomaterials, helping to
  simultaneously build community wealth and tackle the climate emergency.

Want to get involved?

We are currently having conversations with people in the local area, gathering ideas for how to steward and activate the space over the summer. We will soon be inviting stakeholders to hear more about what is emerging locally.

Keen to support our small sites work at Rodfords Mead? Interested in finding out more? Please get in touch by emailing hello@wecanmake.org.