A NEW £1.2m community hub is nearly open in Bovey Tracey and the first people to be moving in are the town council officers.

Town clerk Mark Wells said: ‘We’ll be in by the end of this week.’

The new offices will be a change for staff used to working in the confines of a 19th century building at the top of the town.

Those small, ancient rooms will now be taken on by the Dartmoor Distillery which already occupies the main hall, while Mark and his team will enjoy working in a brighter, modern environment.

Before the furniture went in this week the team responsible for the design, Peregrine Mears Architects, were invited to view the results of their work – some of them seeing it for the first time.

Stuart O’Higgins, of construction company Devon Contractors, said: ‘The design has changed from its original plan and this will be a good public space which we hope will be well used by the people of Bovey Tracey.

‘It was challenging at times building next to a road, and there was a serious flood at this end of the town around Easter.

‘Covid restrictions were an added complication. But we were able to isolate workers in different areas of the building to ensure all the work continued smoothly.’

Mark paid tribute to town councillor Eoghan Kelly: ‘Eoghan has chaired the community centre steering committee since the very beginning – before I was here. He has overseen the whole process and been instrumental in its success.’

The centre, recently named the Riverside Community Centre, sits at the entrance to the town on the former site of The Old Thatched Inn, which burned down many years ago.

The next teams to move in will be the viitors’ information centre– which used to be housed in a cabin in the Station Road car park – and the town library staff. All are anticipated to be in by the end of next month.

As well as town hall offices and the library, the new Riverside hub will provide a large meeting space and a suite of small offices for hire.

Mark said: ‘We have four “stepping stone” offices which can be rented for a range of times.

‘Some will be available for up to a month, while others will offer an ideal place to host business meetings and can be hired for just part of a day if needed. They’ll be available towards the end of the year.’

Completing the facilities are public toilets and a state of the art disabled toilet with adult changing facilities, part funded by the town’s League of Friends.

Mark said: ‘The build has cost £1.2m and has come in under budget.

‘We were able to obtain funding from a number of sources including Devon County Council towards the library relocation; an Investing in Devon Grant from our county councillor; Teignbridge District Council Section 106 (towards replacement public toilet facilities) Bovey Tracey Town Council (earmarked reserves) Greater Dartmoor LEAF (Local Enterprise Action Fund) (towards the creation of Incubation Office space) while a loan from the Public Sector Works Loan Board funded the rest.’