Ambitious plans to develop Bromyard’s HOPE Family Centre will make it the town a centre for training, employment and services, officials have said.
The plan will allow the centre to house day-care facilities for young children, additional space for services and training, and even an on-site cafe.
Speaking at last week’s town council meeting, HOPE Centre manager Sheenagh Davis said the project will provide valuable opportunities for future generations.
“It’s about providing as much for the community as we possibly can,” she said.
“We have said we don’t think we will really see the true value of it (the centre) until the next generation, we want to make sure it’s here for the future of Bromyard.”
She said the centre has been deemed as a “priority project” and has already received £280,000 in funding in the form of a co-location grant from Herefordshire Council.
The centre has been earmarked as a place to house a ‘bank’ of nominated professionals to provide specialist health, social, education or training services for the community.
“It’s very much about widening what we do but also allowing other professionals to come and work in the town,” said Sheenagh.
“We are aware that families are unable to access many services because of the rural location of Bromyard, we’re hoping we can bring services into the community.”
“We don’t want to tread on the toes of existing services in the town, what we want to do is provide new ones.”
Sheenagh says she hopes that architects will have finalised plans in place for submission to Herefordshire Council by early August.
The development will also create ‘workshop’ space for conference, meetings and functions which will be available for hire.
A cafe will work on a commercial basis but will also provide training opportunties for local people.
It is hoped that this will increase employment opportunties in the area.
“This second phase will increase opportunities for work in Bromyard” added Sheenagh.
“Not only does it increase it but we have found that it will enable people to become confident enough to start their own businesses or go into further training.”