Thank You

The Dartington Hall Trust would like to say a big “thank you” to everyone who came along to have their say at one of the Abundant Life consultation events last month.
The public events, which took place from the 13 – 17 December, were the latest in a long line of opportunities for members of the local community to have their say on the Abundant Life plan to build a new model of community living for people over 55 by 2014. With over 200 people attending across the course of the week, the events were a great success with the Abundant Life team receiving feedback from a diverse range of local people.

The scheme is part of Dartington’s social justice programme. Based at the former Dartington Hall School site at Foxhole, the project is intended to redefine older-age living, supporting residents to live vibrant, active and outward-facing lives by providing a mixture of purpose-designed residential apartments and communal spaces, including a shop, restaurant, and gym. The project will also have a positive impact in the locality by housing additional facilities such as meeting rooms for local community groups, a community garden and a nursery.

The consultation events were part of the Abundant Life strategy to shape the scheme around the views and needs of people living locally. As Michelle Meredith, Community Liaison Officer for Abundant Life, points out: “The events in December followed a lot of work over the last year to encourage the local community to help shape the design of scheme and the buildings. Last summer we had a lot of really useful conversations with people interested in the project through a series of design workshops. This latest series of events was designed to let them see how their feedback in the summer has been built into our latest set of plans.”

The feedback sessions also presented the opportunity for anyone living in the local area to come and see what the Abundant Life team were planning: “As well as encouraging people who were already aware of the project to attend, we wanted to make sure that anyone living locally was able to find out about the project and share their concerns, hopes and wishes. While we were really pleased to see familiar faces, it was also great to speak to so many people we hadn’t seen before.”
Celia Atherton, Director of The Dartington Hall Trust’s social justice programme, was pleased with the feedback received: “I’d like to thank all who attended our recent December consultation events; it was really great to hear from so many people living locally. In all, around 200 people attended and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We feel sure that, after talking to you, Abundant Life is absolutely the right thing for this community. We are aware that there will always be strong views about a project like this, and we encourage as many people as possible to continue to get in touch with us. We really want Abundant Life to be shaped by you, so if you do have any questions or queries please do contact us.”