CREDITON Station Tea Rooms will be further developed as an equal access Tea Rooms and for other initiatives thanks to a £10,000 grant from Great Western Railway’s Customer and Communities Improvement Fund (CCIF).

The Station Tea Rooms is run by The Turning Tides Project, which is a Crediton-based Community Interest Company which aims to make equal access to music and the arts for people with learning disability or autism.

In June 2018 the vacant Crediton Station building was leased and the tea rooms established as a community hub.

In addition to promoting its use by the community for a range of purposes, The Turning Tides Project (TTTP) aims to further develop the Tea Rooms and had sought funding to help them do so.

The Turning Tides Project is among nine schemes from Devon announced as receiving more than £155,000 of funding from Great Western Railway’s community improvement fund.

Designed to help boost the local economy, GWR invited bids from its Customer and Communities Improvement Fund (CCIF) last summer.

GWR Managing Director Mark Hopwood said: “We at GWR recognise only too well the vital role that rail plays in local and the national economy, and I am delighted that we have been able to continue to support the communities we serve with this funding.

“This year’s entrants include a wide and staggering range of projects, many showing the innovation that the area has become renowned for, and I look forward to them all coming to fruition.”

With match funding, the total investment being made in the Devon community will top £293,000.

All the proposals were presented to a panel of representatives from GWR’s Customer Panel (made up of local customers), the Advisory Board (made up of local stakeholders), and the executive management team. Final recommendations were then put to the Department for Transport (DfT) for approval. 

Supported by the DfT, the Customer and Communities Improvement Fund (CCIF) was established to recognise and back projects identified by the communities where GWR operates, with projects requiring local authority match funding.

Jane Williams from The Turning Tides Project told the “Courier”: “We’re really pleased to hear that we’ve been successful in our bid for CCIF funding.

“We’ll be using it to further develop Crediton Tea Rooms as an equal access tea rooms, a community venue and the base for our recently launched gardening scheme, Another Root.

“The funding recognises and supports not only our intention to provide a valuable community resource but also marks the beginning of some very positive relationships that are developing between The Turning Tides Project and the range of Rail organisations. We look forward to the opportunities to promote equal access, that this will create. 

“The Tea Rooms is open Tuesday to Saturday and is also available to book as a private venue. Come and try the cake, browse our range of up-cycled and repurposed gifts, find out more about our catering service, Another Root ... or even book the band to play. 

“Open, Inclusive, free parking, a warm welcome, good food : come and say hello.”

One of the others to receive a grant was the Tarka Line Community Engineering Works Enhancement group, which receives £48,562.

With track renewal work scheduled for October, GWR has set up a group which includes the Tarka Rail Association (TRA) and Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership (DCRP) to look at all aspects of the works.

As part of this, the Group has invited suggestions for enhancements that could be carried out making use of the line closure; including the provision of running in boards at Yeoford and Copplestone; Direction of Travel signs at Copplestone (with height above sea level) and Umberleigh; a History and Heritage Display at Crediton Down Waiting Room and selected vegetation clearance to improve views from the train.