CREDITON Town Team has had another successful year running activities which make our town a more lively and healthy place to live.

At its recent Annual General Meeting, representatives from county, district and town councils, as well as members of the public, gathered to hear about the wide range of projects the Team had been supporting during the past year.

Crediton Town Team is a voluntary group, set up in 2014, which works towards making our community more vibrant and sustainable.

Town Team chair, Rosemary Stephenson, gave an update on the Flag Project, now in its sixth year, which involves local businesses and community groups making flags to decorate the High Street during the summer.

After five years many of the flags were damaged or faded, so the focus this year had been on repairing the existing collection of more than 70 flags, giving them a new lease of life.

But there were plans to make new flags again next year and there was already a waiting list of organisations keen to get involved.

BONIFACE PROJECT

Town Team member, Rod Brookes Hocking, reported on the progress of the Boniface Project, which aims to install a trail of eight beautiful glass panels telling the story of St Boniface throughout the town.

He was pleased to report that Mid Devon District Council had just approved planning permission for the panels.

The Team had applied to the LEADER fund - a European rural grants programme – for £20,000 and is expecting to hear the result in January.

If successful, the panels will be installed next year and should encourage visitors – many from Germany and Holland – to stay longer in the town.

COMMUNITY HUB

An update was given on the Town Team’s Community Hub Project. This is an ambitious, long-term plan to build a large community facility to support the town’s cultural, social, health and business activities.

As well as providing a flexible 200-seat theatre, it could offer space for many other groups and services, who currently lack facilities.

A new team of trustees, with a relevant skills and experience, had been appointed to lead the project and had been meeting monthly since September.

Key targets for 2019 included setting up a new charity to run the project, writing a business plan, fundraising for a feasibility study and, most importantly, an extensive public consultation to find out what the town wants.

The Town Team had continued to support the listings magazine, "Get Out EX17".

Set up by Moon Jazz Club founder Andrew Vaccari to help promote the many arts event in our area, the publication had struggled to find enough advertisers to fund it.

This year Andrew had teamed up with the "Crediton Courier", which now publishes his listings once a month, enabling it to reach a much wider audience. This still required some subsidy, to cover the "Courier’s" costs, and the Town Team will continue to help Andrew with this.

ACTIVE MUMS CYCLING

News from the Active Mums Cycling Project was given by Team member Lorraine Harris.

Young mums cycle out weekly on supervised rides, with their babies or toddlers in trailers.

This excellent project, supporting mums to get fit and stay connected, was initiated by Active Devon and had been helped to continue by the Town Team. Using several grants secured by the Team, eight bikes and trailers had been bought making the group independent. Thanks was offered to the Bike Shed, which had supported the project from the beginning by lending equipment and offering free storage space.

Thanks was also offered to the firm, Create Storage, which had offered to take over storing the bikes at its site on the Westward Business Centre. Without the generous support of these local businesses the project would not be possible, said the Town Team. The rides are due to start again in the Spring.

WELL-BEING CREDITON

A new social prescribing project, called Well-being Crediton, was described by Vice Chair, Kate Lock.

Social prescribing is a new idea nationally to support people who are on the “edge of care” – isolated, lacking in confidence and seeking health care but not necessarily needing the care of the GPs.

Working with the volunteer support service, Involve, the Town Team had helped to secure an NHS grant to trial a scheme in Crediton.

Age Concern would employ a community connector, initially for one day-a-week, to help signpost patients to activities and support services to meet their needs.

The Team was also working with similar groups in Moretonhampstead and Okehampton to bid for more money to expand the project. This is a well-researched, evidence based service to support people in need.

CREDFEST 19

The meeting heard that the Town Team was already busy planning CredFest 19, which would take place in June next year.

Highlights of the festival programme includes a Big Sunday Lunch, a silent disco, an open air cinema, an original show about World War One from CODS and a Big Read event from the Community Bookshop.

It was noted that raising funds for the Festival was proving more difficult than in previous years.

After a brief discussion about the accounts and the election of officers, the meeting closed. There were many expressions of thanks for the work the Town Team had done during the year.

To find out more or get involved with the Town Team’s work visit: www.creditontownteam.org.uk .