THERE was a ‘full house’ at the meeting for businesses and organisations interested in using space at the redeveloped Dairy Crest site in Totnes. The pioneering Atmos project, put forward by Totnes Community Development Society, is consulting on business use for the site and held an open meeting at the Royal Seven Stars ballroom.
TCDS director Anna Lodge said: “There was just shy of 70 people in the room.
“We’ve invited people to submit an expression of interest and people will be put into work groups so they can work with people who have overlapping or complementary business offers.
“It’s about businesses working together and being able to say what they need.
“We’re trying to marry this with what the community says it wants.”
The TCDS is leading the project to deliver Atmos Totnes on the land next to the Totnes railway station and has driven negotiations to create a national legal ‘first’ to secure the land for community development.
Work is due to begin on the site in 2016 for a 2017 and 2018 completion. Site facilities will include flexible work and living/work units of various sizes plus outdoor spaces.
The site will be managed as a Community Land Trust.
TCDS has also been asked to carry out business planning for The Mansion in Totnes.
Information collected around business use is also designed to inform business planning for both Atmos Totnes and The Mansion.
The Mansion will be a collaborative community run facility, the management of which is to be decided at a later point.
Public consultation will continue in the next few weeks. Work since October has brought the two sides of the eight-acre site together in one masterplan.
The deadline for submissions of expressions of interest is July 24.
Original appeared in the Herald Express.
