A LARGE donation was presented to a Tavistock charity on Monday (May 20) by the former town mayor.

Tavistock Area Children’s Centre, based at Abbey Rise, was the chosen charity for Cllr Paul Ward for his mayoral year from 2018 to 2019.

At Tavistock Town Council’s annual meeting on Monday, which saw the new mayor Cllr Anne Johnson installed into office, Cllr Ward presented his chosen charity with £1,182.11.

Cllr Ward chose the children’s centre due to his background as a consultant paediatrician at Derriford Hospital for 23 years.

The centre covers Hatherleigh and Okehampton but only Tavistock’s services will benefit from the donation.

Katie Page, child and family practitioner for Tavistock Children’s Centre, thanked Cllr Ward for choosing the centre as his chosen charity as it would help ‘highlight the work we do in the area we cover’.

On Tuesday, May 14, the practitioners at the centre invited Cllr Ward and his wife Jane to see the vital work they carried out.

‘We invited Cllr Ward and the [former] mayoress to the centre to show them the work we do and introduce them to some families, and see where the money will be spent.

‘It is wonderful to be recognised as the children’s centre does go unnoticed. From being the mayor’s chosen charity we have had donations from the Lions and The Salvation Army and we have made other links and have been getting the word out there about the centre.’

Cllr Ward said: ‘Because of my background as a consultant paediatrician I was looking for a children’s charity to support and I was keen that it was local.

‘One of the things I liked was that the children’s centre is proactive instead of reactive and I think the centre is superb.

‘The centre is involved with a huge range of services — we sat with six mums and heard the problems they had and how the children’s centre had helped them. It’s tucked away at Abbey Rise and I believe people don’t know it’s there and that’s why I chose them.’

Tavistock Area Children’s Centre is run by Action for Children and offers a range of services that caters to suit all families from all walks of life with children from 0 to 8 years old. Parents are able to drop in to the centre at any time and speak to a child and family practitioner.

A Tavistock centre practitioner said: ‘A mum recently came into the centre three-days postpartum [after delivery], visibly distressed and was able to have a 30-minute conversation with a trained practitioner and was then referred into the service for ongoing support. You can’t get that online — this is a common occurrence.’

Karen Pearce, service lead for Action for Children Tavistock Children’s Centre, said: ‘We very much run an open door policy and if anyone has any questions then they can come and ask and we if we can’t help then we will signpost them to other agencies.’

In England there are around 3,000 centres, providing a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of families across the country.

But The Sutton Trust estimates over 1,000 children’s centres have closed since 2009.

For more information on Tavistock Area Children’s Centre visit www.actionforchildren.org.uk/in-your-area or call 01822 614210.