Steve Smith
Townstal Community Hall
Credit for the hall’s flourishing success is due to the small band of volunteers who freely give their time and effort to ensure the estate maintains its much-needed vibrant neighbourly heart.
Spearheading the group is its chairman, Steve Smith, who is dedicated to serving the 2,500-strong community at the top of town.
Steve devotes 10-hours of his precious time to the community hall each week, helping to run the regular Saturday night youth clubs and the popular Wednesday night drop-in sessions.
The busy 59-year-old husband and father of six boys also holds down a full-time job as Sodexo mess manager at Britannia Royal Naval College, has been a Dartmouth Town Councillor for the past five years, is vice-chairman of Townstal Community Partnership, and a committee member for Dartmouth Food Bank, Dartmouth and District Sports Association and Dartmouth Outdoor Pool group.
An avuncular character, Steve has an exhaustive timetable but he loves being in the thick of things. ‘I love the community bit, I like to be in a position where I’m doing things for other people,’ he said.
‘I’m very much a people person.’
Steve was destined to be involved in Townstal Community Hall. Born in Malta where his father served in the Royal Navy, he returned to the UK in 1954 when his family settled in Plymouth.
The family moved to Townstal when Steve was seven and his father, George Smith, was co-opted onto the former Townstal Community Association.
Steve explained: ‘It was headed by George Jones, Mrs Pearce, Ken Tucker and my father, George, who was treasurer. For years and years they battled on trying to get a community centre but they never really achieved it.
‘The project was resurrected in the late 1990s but it didn’t really take off until Brian Boughton, who was then our district councillor, came into it.
‘He rallied everybody together and if it wasn’t for him and small bands of volunteers we would not have the hall. It was Brian who went out and managed to get the funding and this place was opened.
‘I got elected to Dartmouth Town Council in 2007 and when they asked for a volunteer to represent the council on the community hall I foolishly volunteered’, Steve laughed.
‘Within a year the chairman decided to stand down and they said would I take up the chairmanship. That was in 2008 and I’ve been chairman ever since and I love it.’
Part funded by the Lottery; Devon, South Hams and Dartmouth councils’ and private donations, the £750,000 purpose built community hall in Ivatt Road was opened in October 30 2004 and consists of a large hall and meeting room, a generous and well-equipped kitchen, disabled facilities and storage space.
As well as being a base for Townstal Community Partnership, a multi-agency voluntary group which holds regular public meetings involving the local police, fire service, housing associations and medical practice, and runs weekly hub sessions offering free legal advice and a work club; the hall is also used by several local clubs and groups.
There are weekly classes in dance and performing arts, taekwondo and martial arts and a memory clinic run by Dartmouth Caring. Saturday nights are reserved for the two youth clubs and the hall is also used by the town’s arts society, flower club, WI and Food Bank, Steve said, adding: ‘It’s buzzing virtually every night.
‘We get regular bookings for private parties too – we’ve had the occasional wedding reception, a christening and even a funeral wake.
‘I’m very, very proud of this place which I have inherited from other people who have put a lot of hours of hard work into it. We are all just doing our bit to make it more community minded up here.
‘People didn’t meet here before the hall, they just went down the hill because there was nothing here for them, except the Lord Nelson pub. That’s why we desperately needed the community centre.
‘I’ve seen a very big difference on the estate since it opened. There was a high level of anti-social behaviour on the streets and that’s one of the problems we have managed to solve on the estate, through the youth club. It still goes on but not a great deal now. By having events like this on a regular basis it gives youngsters something to go to and something for them to do.’
The community hall is one of the few facilities available to Townstal’s residents, which makes it a valuable resource. Steve said: ‘Over the 50-odd years I’ve been on the estate we have had a chippie and the Lord Nelson pub which both closed and a football club which is still running.
‘When you consider how large the estate is and that another 420 houses are planned by Millwood Homes at West Dartmouth, this place will be even more important as a community base than it is now.’
Steve is on a mission to ensure the hall’s growing success. His vision for the centre includes opening up the second floor of the hall, which was never completed because the money ran out.
He also hopes to encourage more volunteers to come forward to run a social committee to cater for Townstal’s elderly residents.
‘The building is only half used because above the ceiling in the main hall is another 10-foot high space,’ he said. ‘It will cost £50,000 to make it useable. We desperately need it as we often have to turn away people who want to hire the hall for private parties because it’s already booked by another group.
‘I would also love to have community lunches here. We do a lot for the young but not a lot for the elderly.’
For more information about Townstal Community Hall and how to hire, phone Terry Prior, Manager/Caretaker on 07816 917073
First Published May/June 2012 By The Dart
