RDPE’S FIRST SOMERSET GRANT AWARD GIVES GO AHEAD TO MELLS COFFEE SHOP

The construction of Mells Coffee Shop is now underway thanks to a grant of £48,000’s worth of funding from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) Community and Social Enterprise Fund.  This is the first project in Somerset to be funded by this grant.  A coffee shop was high on the community wish list when plans for refurbishment were first mooted and its construction was taken into consideration when the Shop layout was reconfigured.

Like the Shop through which it will be accessed, Mells Coffee Shop will be staffed by a mix of paid employees and volunteers, offering a simple range of basic, reasonably priced hot and cold food and drink for up to 20 people at a time.  It will be a venue for locals to get together, a lunch base for business people and will provide refreshments for the many passing walkers and cyclists. The room will be also be available as an informal meeting room for clubs and small parties.

A disabled WC, which will be accessed from the Coffee Shop, was completed last year, thanks to a grant of £1,000 from Mendip Housing (now Flourish Homes) and funding of £12,000 towards the project has also recently been granted by the Somerset County Council Rural Services Fund.   In addition the Mells & Vobster Trust has given a further grant of £10,000 towards the project.

A design in stone, oak and glass has been chosen to complement Lutyens’ memorial shelter opposite and the adjacent old stone buildings.  The tented scaffolding surrounding the site should enable work to continue throughout the winter and it is expected that the Coffee Shop will open for its first customers in the spring.

Below is a view of the area to the side of the shop where the coffee Shop will be located, and a front elevation from the plans.


by June Costelloe