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Tavistock Taskforce is a Community Interest Company run for volunteers with an interest in working to enhance the countryside, and also provides work opportunities for those with learning difficulties, the unemployed and the socially excluded.
Working mainly for major organisations, including Historic England, English Nature, National Trust, Dartmoor National Park and Cormac, but also for local district and parish councils, Tavistock Taskforce is self-funding through the nature conservation work it does. The tasks undertaken include maintaining sites of historic interest, habitat restoration, tree and hedge planting, woodland management, footpath clearing, dry-stone walling and fencing. Members also work for local schools and churches, small charities and community gardens, doingground maintenanceand, duringthe summer months, they are kept busy making sure that Dartmoor’s car parks are clean and tidy. Generally, they only work four days a week, Friday being reserved for an ‘office day’, and are happy to travel to jobs within an hour’s drive of Tavistock, mainly covering South East Cornwall and Dartmoor National Park. Their treasured minibus has become essential for transporting volunteers and all the necessary tools and kit.
Taskforce has undertaken some important and exciting archaeological restoration work, including repairing a section of ground at Plympton Castle motte which had been worn away by visitors. For this, they had to lay 14 tonnes of shillet in over 500 sandbags, cover them with soil and seed the ground. One of the larger projects has been their two-year-long preservation work on the tramway on Dartmoor (known as Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway), where they have uncovered over 200 of the original granite sleepers at Clearbook, part of the 25-mile stretch of track. The volunteers are currently working on rebuilding a three-mile section of stone-faced deer park walls at Cann Woods, dating from 1699.
Director, Peter O’Dell, was instrumental in setting up the Taskforce in 2006 with Geri Laithwaite, who has a great deal of past experience working with charities and now handles all of their administration. Peter has always had an active interest in nature conservation and volunteered for many years as a group leader with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) in the UK and Germany. After serving in the Merchant Navy, he went to Plymouth Polytechnic to do a degree in environmental science and then completed a one-year post-graduate course in countryside management in Bangor, North Wales. His first job was as a ranger in a country park in east London, where he helped to revive an old bluebell wood. He later moved back to Devon and worked as a self-employed landscape gardener before becoming the assistant ranger for the South West Lakes Trust at Burrator Reservoir. It was here that Peter began helping out with a local volunteer conservation group, working with disadvantaged people. The group sadly folded, but the volunteers and their clients were keen for their work to continue and so, with the support of a start-up enterprise in Plymouth, a borrowed £1000, a £500 minibus and a set of tools, Tavistock Taskforce was born.
At the end of 2017, the group moved to new premises, which needed extensive renovation to be suitable for their purposes. This, naturally, required substantial funding. As luck would have it, one of the volunteers, Roger Edmunds, had the perfect skill set for the job. With a background working for the Department for International Development, he was used to applying for finance and after successfully submitting a bid to The National Lottery for a grant, they received a substantial cheque, for which they are extremely grateful.
There are currently 25 volunteers at Taskforce, some of whom either have learning difficulties, are in ‘independent living’, are unable to work, or who are required to do community-based work. Some volunteers are referred by social workers or unemployment agencies; some come from Duchy College; others approach Taskforce independently. Peter describes them as all being very dedicated and bringing different skills to their work and Taskforce offers them appropriate training, including health and safety, first aid, and chainsaw handling.
Some volunteers eventually move on to gainful employment, which gives Peter a great sense of satisfaction, knowing that the organisation has had a real impact on their life. One such volunteer discovered by chance that he loved working with people with learning difficulties and went on to work at the Molly Owen Centre. Peter says that the work the volunteers do, has a tangible outcome, a sense of achievement and enjoyment, and provides them with new skills, as well as the benefits of physical exercise. Perhaps most importantly for them, it creates a social bond: a camaraderie.
If you can offer work opportunities or would like to volunteer, or for more information, please contact tavy.taskforce@btconnect.comor telephone Peter O’Dell on 01822 610071.
Kaye Rogers