• Rural skills. Run by WestDEN, this project offers free guidance and practical help to unemployed people over the age of 30 who wish to use their skills to make a living in the countryside.

• Pitts Cleave Quarry. West Devon Borough Council is building 5000 square feet of managed workspace in twelve units and four workshops of 3000 square feet at Pitts Cleave Quarry one mile north of Tavistock.

• Local food promotion. This WestDEN project promotes organic and healthy local food. It will be compiling a food directory and, at the same time, writing to local producers to ask what kind of support they would value. More generally, it will increase awareness about the importance of healthy eating and the need to reduce ‘food miles’. The current funding expires in November 2004 but follow-on work is already being identified.

• Devon Coast to Coast Cycle Path. Details in ‘Travel and Transport’

• Ley of the Land. Details in ‘Young People’

• Princetown farm. Details in ‘Young People’

• Princetown corner site. Prominently situated in the centre of the village, this derelict site is a major eyesore and a turn-off for visitors to Dartmoor. Redevelopment proposals are being led by the Duchy of Cornwall as the landlord while maintaining close liaison with the community, local authorities and agencies. A feasibility study in 2003 identified good potential for including craft workshops and a display gallery for local artists.
  

• Tavistock heritage buildings. The heritage buildings in Abbey Place are either vacant or becoming vacant, and a high priority is being given to finding appropriate new uses for them given their historic value and prominent situation. A feasibility study commissioned in November 2003 is reviewing their potential as a visitor centre.
  

• Prison museum. The current museum collection has been brought together by the remarkable efforts of individual prison officers. It has already demonstrated its ability to attract and inform visitors despite having unsuitable accommodation and limited advertising. There is clear potential to expand and re-house the collection, and to present it professionally with links to related attractions. With several possibilities for development, the project will be progressed with wider economic benefits in mind.
  

• Business support centres. There are many small businesses which individually cannot afford the full range of office facilities needed to compete effectively in the modern market place. These include access to specialist IT equipment, office equipment and meeting rooms, as well as reference material. This project is intended to create a main business support centre in Tavistock and satellite centres in some of the villages.
  

• Internet marketing. Enquiries have shown that most local businesses feel that they are not getting enough trading advantage from their websites. The advent of Broadband will help but there are several other issues that need to be addressed, both within individual companies and for the Tavistock area as a whole. Conceived as a local response to the Broadband4Devon project, work to improve the area’s Internet marketing potential is being developed through a community enterprise trading as Tavistock Business and Social Company, or TABASCO for short.
  

• Materials reprocessing. Responsible disposal of waste is a significant overhead for small businesses. As an example, farms produce about two tons of plastic waste every year and, with reprocessing facilities outside the region, transport costs are high. This project, which is a community enterprise joint venture with Okehampton MCTi, aims to establish a new centre close to the A30 which would be able to accept material recovered from recycling and reprocess it into marketable products. Consultants were engaged in February 2004 to help with developing the business case.
  

• Local food supply. Building on WestDEN’s work to promote organic and healthy local food, this project is investigating what is needed to close the gap between local producers and consumers. The objective is to enable local producers to bid into sustainable markets, including local institutions such as schools, hospitals, prisons and the armed forces.
  

• Annual food festival. The objective of this project is to create an annual food festival which will provide an exhibition and sales site in the Pannier Market for quality food and drink suppliers based in Cornwall, Devon or Somerset. Parallel events include cookery demonstrations, food talks, a farmers’ market throughout both days on Bedford Square and partnership food and drink trails with local pubs and restaurants.
  

• Lopwell pumping station. Owned by South West Water and leased to the South West Lakes Trust, the redundant pumping station at Lopwell Dam is to be renovated and transformed into a study and interpretation centre. Visitors will be able to explore a variety of themes based around the different uses of local natural resources through history. The themes will embrace arts, crafts, science and culture.
  

• Tourism and marketing strategy. Working with local tourism associations, this project will describe what kinds of tourism ventures are being sought for the local area, and how they could be developed and marketed.
  

• Yelverton walks. Drake's Dartmoor tourism group has mapped a number of country walks in the area between Princetown and Yelverton. There is a visitor demand to expand the range of walks and to produce a consolidated guide. The project may also help to open up new walking links such as a path between Yelverton and Dousland which would avoid a dangerous stretch of road.
  

• Music Festival. Details in ‘Culture, Media, Sports and Leisure’
  

• Lamerton Sports and Community Centre. Details in ‘Culture, Media, Sports and Leisure’
  

• Lydford Community Hall. Details in ‘Culture, Media, Sports and Leisure’
  

• The Princetown Village Centre. ‘Culture, Media, Sports and Leisure’
  

• Town museum. Details in ‘Culture, Media, Sports and Leisure’
  

Projects in concept phases – what is being talked about

• Community Action Shop. With a shop-front location, this could provide a very visible and accessible focus for developing community initiatives. It could provide a single venue for all initiatives needing personnel support and be used to collocate complementary activities to make best use of a diverse resource base. In addition, there could be space set aside for business meeting rooms and shared office facilities, which would help with providing a business support centre.

• Canal recreational boating. See ‘Culture, Media, Sports and Leisure’

This site will be continuously maintained to keep track of issues and projects as they develop. Use the form on each page of this site to make to make your own suggestions and comments, or to raise questions.