New community facilities brought forward for Cranbrook

Devon County Councillors have agreed a proposal to bring forward the development of important community facilities for Cranbrook.The new town has plans for a children’s centre, library and youth facilities to be built at key intervals in its development, tied with occupancy levels.But as occupancy is rising, the County Council and other local agencies are seeing growing demand on health and social services, such that some community facilities are required sooner than first envisaged.So a proposal to bring forward a multi-purpose integrated building, to be built in the next few years, was given the go ahead this week by Councillors.The proposal will go through the usual planning process and public consultation.The new building would be designed flexibly to host a range of Devon County Council services and be able to adapt to future changes in service provision.It would include space for a children’s centre, youth services, adult social care, and library services, with potential use for public health and highways services.The Council’s Public Health Nursing Service could share the children’s centre space.The facility would support local community-based services within the town, and it is expected that there would be space for use or hire by other organisations.The current plans require the developers to build the facilities only when certain trigger points are reached, but under the new proposal the County Council will work with partners including district and town councils, as well as the developers, to deliver these town centre facilities sooner.