Castletown community café plan making progress
A PLAN to set up a community café in Castletown is making progress, with a pop-up facility due to open next week.
The initiative is being led by Castletown and Community Free Church whose publicity officer, Christine Stone, says it is "still in the early stages".
"Having only just finalised our constitution, we still need to apply for funding," she explained. "We need to further consider the best venue for a permanent café and listen to the community, take on board their views and wishes, pull it all together and have the best possible facility up and running in due course."
The aim is for it not just to be a café but to serve as a hub for the community. That could include helping people fill in forms and being available to share something on a confidential basis or a list of other services.
"But it would also be a base for people to pop in for tea, coffee and a blether with their friends, creating a hub for anyone wanting to meet up due to loneliness or isolation," Mrs Stone said.
In the meantime a pop-up style café is to be established in the Castletown Drill Hall.
"We have decided to make a start in a temporary fashion and plan to set up a 'pop-up' style café and settled on the name for our community café which is 'e Peedie Café," she said. "It will run on Tuesday afternoons, from 1.30pm until 4pm, and on Wednesday mornings from 9.30am until noon.
"It will welcome anyone and everyone through the doors so we're really looking forward to seeing locals, those from the surrounding communities, tourists and passers-by."
The café will open for the first time on Tuesday.
The need for a community café was among the issues highlighted at a two-day community consultation event earlier this year, run as part of a 12-month project paid for by the Scottish Government’s Aspiring Communities Fund and designed to identify inequalities across Caithness.