WAP news and updates...

Community Bags

The community bags are now available to buy, the cost of a bag is £4.00 with £1.50 going directly to the Maltings development, this is truly a way for locals and visitors to say they have helped by making this small contribution. The bag is available from Wells Tourist information office and from a few shops up Staithe Street. Please support the project and the environment by buying a bag. Click the bag for a detailed image.

Maltings project : The Feasibility study is available as a zipped PDF file, you can dowload the file to your local computer, unzip the folder and save the PDF file enclosed by clicking the link below:

Download the Feasibility Study HERE

Co-ordinators update July 2010

The summer is finally here!

How to Guide

The How to guide is now finally being printed and will be available for different groups to request a copy, we are limited as to how many can go to each market town so we hope to have them in places of resource like local libraries. This project shows the work done by Homes for Wells and Fran Marshall should be congratulated and thanked for all her hard work and time spent completed this.

Hope & Smile Club

Wells Area Partnership have been working with the Hope and Smile group for the past few months, supporting them and getting policies and accounts sorted out. This small but significant group in Wells, supports people suffering from depression and lonliness. We are now looking at forming a business plan and applying for funding to allow a co-ordinator position to be paid. If funding is available then this can add security to the group.
The group also recently visited Gressenhall Rural life museum in a trip arranged between WAP and the Adult education services.

CATS

The CATS committee organised two technology hours in Wells Library to offer free support and advice to people who needed help with technology. Both days were attended well and the CATS team looked at i-pods and Digital cameras. Since the event we have had several telephone calls asking for more of these events. We will be meeting with the CATS committee in the next few weeks to discuss. We hope to branch this across North Norfolk. The CATS committee will also be discussing a possible clearing out of Walsingham Pavilion and also Youth forum for the Maltings development. The CATS members who attended the technology hours will be rewarded with a Quaser Laser trip in July.

Maltings Development Manager

The Maltings Development has been taking up the most of my time for the past two months. The Development Manager role securred funding and a job description was developed. The position was advertised and we received over 100 requests for information packs. The closing date was this week and we have had a healthy 26 applications for the role. This has been very exciting although time consuming, but the support from the local people and from people who have lived in Wells but moved away is fantastic, I have had telephone calls from all over the UK from people wanting to discuss the project and how they can get involved and do their bit. This leads me nicely onto how people can get involved.
The new Maltings website www.wellsmaltings.org.uk has a function where you can register your details to be kept in the loop with developments and updates. The community bags will be avaiable to buy from the tourist information centre and other locations around Wells within the next few weeks. These bags will cost £4.00 and £1.50 of this will go directly to the Maltings project so people can honestly say they have supported it financially. There will be a press release when the bag will be available to buy.

Talking of Press Release

Wells Area Partnership approached the Archant newspaper to see if they would consider doing a centre page spread about all 7 local partnerships. This did not seem to materialise but they did offer WAP a monthly update page. In the Fakenham and Wells each month WAP has a page surrounded by adverts from local businesses giving an update of whats happening. If you have any news you would like us to put in the update please email it through to Ben by the beginning of the month. The next update will be in July 9th newspaper.

Community Transport

WAP have started a campaign to get the Community bus used more often. The first step to achieving this was that Ben took the mini bus driving test and passed. The lack of drivers in the Wells area seems to be the main reason people do not use the bus. The price of the bus works out very reasonable. The next step is to try and attract some more people to train as drivers and secondly to get more local groups to use the bus, the hope and smile group will be using the bus monthly to go to Morrisons in Fakenham and others can benefit from this trip if they would like to use the facility. Anyone interested in using the bus or training to be a driver please contact WAP.