Charles opens Centre for Creativity
PRINCE Charles also visited Dartmoor to officially open the new Princetown Village Centre and visit the Duchy Square Centre for Creativity.
Charles has strong links to Princetown – his Duchy of Cornwall estate owns much of the land in the area including Dartmoor Prison, which it rents to the Ministry of Justice.
The new centre, opened in April, provides access to IT services, a GP surgery, library, pre-school, exercise classes and a venue for community groups. The Centre for Creativity opened in March and has 14 artists' workshops, office space, a gallery, shop and teaching studio.
The Duchy provided land under long leases for the two centres – the Duke of Cornwall's Benevolent Fund gave £100,000 towards the village centre and the Duchy was among the funders of the Centre for Creativity.
Gregg Manning, from High Moorland Community Action, the charity behind the centre, said its building was the culmination of nearly 10 years of hard work. "It's an example of what can be achieved with determination and commitment by the community," he said.
Before unveiling the plaque, the Prince said: "I'm so pleased that at the end of the day, it's proved possible to build this new and most useful centre for the whole community." He met those behind the project, local dignitaries and schoolchildren in the hall.
Local youth worker Paul Dobbie, 43, said: "It's good to see him back here again – he was here around four years ago when all this was in the planning stage.
"We talked about the youth club – he said he was glad it was up and running and wondered whether it was affecting anti- social behaviour. I said certainly on Monday, Tuesday and Friday when it runs, the anti-social behaviour levels go down."
4 Comments
by henry blince, devon
Monday, September 14 2009, 8:08AM
“The Duke contributes £100,000 and enough land for 2 centres, the scopes of which are adventerous and still no-one can find a good thing to say about it. Is the population of this region completely incapable of saying anything good about anything?”
by Freethinker, Cornwall
Saturday, September 12 2009, 9:37PM
“Do u need an NVQ for opening up a centre with a cut of a ribbon. It's a hard life being a Royal.”
by Jerry Jones, Dorset
Saturday, September 12 2009, 7:19PM
“Come to Dorset and see the millions he has made at Poundbury. I see waitrose is the only supermarket selly the Duchy Label and why,because it is the most expensive supermarket. You can buy better quality from any farm shop.”
by Allan, Brasil
Saturday, September 12 2009, 4:48PM
“So nice to see a very rich person making himself even richer,when the Duchy land farming industry in so much decline ! Talk about give with one hand and take with the other? Would like to know how much the rent is hes charging?and still makes it look like he is a goody.”