Paignton monastery revival: Volunteers wanted to help bring building back to life

Volunteers working to transform a derelict Devon monastery into a thriving new community centre are appealing for Paigntonians with paintbrushes.

“Come along and join us – and bring your friends!” said local councillor Cat Johns (Lib Dem, Clifton with Maidenway), who is one of the team behind the project. “We need your help, whether it is DIY, or anything at all.”

Torbay Council had declared the old Victorian monastery building surplus to requirements and was ready to sell it off on the open market when Cllr Johns and her fellow campaigners stepped in.

Home of the Marists priests until 1971, it had been a Lions Club, children’s centre and food bank before it fell into disuse, and the new Paignton Monastery Community Interest Company (CIC) wants it to become a hub for the busy Clifton with Maidenway area.

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The council changed its mind after hearing from the campaigners, and will hand over the keys to the monastery for just one pound – a symbolic moment that is yet to happen.

Then the hard work begins for the CIC, which is currently going through its formal formation process, with four directors and half a dozen support executives signed on.

“I feel like something’s really happening now,” said Cllr Johns. “It all felt like it was slowing down a little bit, but the council is committed to making it happen and we’re committed too.

“We’re grateful for the support we are getting from the council.”

Inside the monastery groups of interested local people, including Torbay’s Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling, saw the scale of the work needed to restore the building for its new use.

The visitors wore hard hats for safety, and face masks because of the extensive mould inside some of the monastery’s many rooms. Recent storms have also dislodged tiles from the roof, meaning repairs will be needed inside and out.

But architect’s drawings show a community cafe in the future plans, along with a gallery and meeting rooms. Visitors have already come up with ideas for uses including exercise classes and exhibitions.

“We all want to make it work,” said Cllr Johns. “But maintaining and restoring it is going to be a big job.

“At the moment the repairs are still the council’s responsibility, and they shouldn’t have let it get into this state. We are getting quotes to see how much it is all going to cost.”

The CIC says that with more than 8,000 people living in the Clifton with Maidenway ward, a community centre should be a priority.

“We don’t actually have one,” said Cllr Johns. “I think we’ve always felt a little bit neglected.

“We don’t have the town, we don’t have shops, we don’t actually have a business in this ward. Others like Foxhole and Kings Ash have got places where young people can go, so why not here?

“Not everybody is well off enough to be able to look after themselves, and people with mental health problems, unemployed people, the youth, they’ve got nowhere.

“Why not come here?”

Estimates vary on how much it will cost to bring the monastery back into use, but it will be at least £150,000, plus the cost of repairing the recent roof damage.

The CIC is busy looking at ways of funding the work, with a possibility of accessing ‘community interest levy’ money paid to the council by developers in return for building local housing projects. Local councillors also have small sums of money allocated to them to be spent in their wards.

Now a drive has begun to get local people involved in the project.

“Considering it was nearly sold off and lost to the community, there’s some real excitement about this,” said Cllr Johns. “It has been left like this for far too long, and now either it gets disposed of by the council, or we step in and get it right.

“Now we have to get on and do it.”