Community Umbrella

Dawlish is popularly perceived as being populated largely by older people, and it is certainly true that there is a significant number of retired people. To this must be added an unseen, but equally important, number of young families often struggling on marginal incomes and an increasingly disaffected youth population in the town. There is an urgent need to bolster community and voluntary groups to improve social cohesion and provide a better range of facilities to meet the needs of the whole population.

Improving the quality of life for people in the town

Improving the quality of life for people in the town by increasing support for voluntary and community groups via a new umbrella organisation.

1. Feedback from local groups indicated that the most effective means of providing this umbrella support is by utilising new technology.
2. Possibly in response to this project, Dawlish Town Council has redesigned its website to include a section "What's on?". This responds to our original aims and completes this project in the Action Plan.

Sport and leisure

• The proven success of our work in preparing the Town Centre Master Plan has encouraged Teignbridge District Council to work with us on improving sports and leisure facilities in Dawlish.
• We are working with the Council on proposals for a public consultation event to clearly establish what the community wants at the Sports Centre and Playing Fields.

Dawlish is the archetypal seaside town dominated by the tourism industry and suffering the consequences of failing to adapt to the changing expectations of customers over the past thirty years.

And yet, it remains special and home to a population that is fiercely proud of it. The community ethos is strong and beneath its often shabby exterior an architectural gem.

We are proud of the achievements of our work to identify and provide solutions to the skills gaps within the town. The results of our skills training are already being seen in the town and the work being done to create the Town Centre Master Plan has led to a credible strategy that clearly articulates the potential renaissance of the town and how we can by our common endeavour achieve it.

The success of our project is however greater than the sum of its parts, impressive though we believe them to be. It is in the creation for the first time in decades of a feeling of optimism about the town's future, even against the background of a national economic downturn. After years of drift, Dawlish can at last see the potential for a bright future.

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Dawlish Community Trust, Room 7, The Manor House, Old Town Street, Dawlish, Devon, EX7 9AP :: Telephone (01626) 866803