I VYBRIDGE is a rather characterless dormitory suburb of Plymouth which for many years struggled with its lack of identity. In recent times it has grown very rapidly (it only became a town in 1977) but has seen no corresponding infrastructure development while its shops have been in decline — do aspects of this sound familiar?

The town, which is about the same size as Bideford, decided to do something about its problems and its people have built the Watermark Centre which has genuinely revitalised the settlement. One Saturday recently the majority of the Bideford town council climbed into a minibus and visited Ivybridge to see for themselves what their counterparts had achieved and whether the Bideford "Hub" building proposed to be built at the eastern end of the Pill car park could be modelled on the Watermark.

The core of the latter is a new library which is four times bigger than the one it replaced. It was bright and airy with music "listening posts", a coffee shop attached — and was packed out with children and adults when we looked in. Indeed visitors had increased from 23,177 to 50,717 whilst they signed up over 1,000 new members during their first month. Associated with this library was a Computer Suite which could be used by both beginners and experts alike. The building also contained a theatre which doubled up as a cinema which in turn could be divided into two for meetings — though this hadn't been as well-patronised as the council had hoped. A tourist/town information office was at the entrance and was advertising a huge range of local events at the time of our visit. The top floor of the 3 storey building was given over to 16 small office units which were hired out to start-up companies and included ones associated with advertising, graphic design, financial advice and even an immigration advisory service. The income from these helped pay for the Centre — while solar panels were mounted on the roof to add to the sustainability of the building.

So how did Ivybridge pay for this — and, more importantly, could Bideford do the same? Well in the first place they held a whole series of discussions with possible users — all of whom had to pay their way, a point which led to some withdrawing early in the process. Additionally they went to the public to see what they really wanted and though many of these meetings were, quote, "frustrating" they finally hammered out a workable plan — and then had to raise the cash.

As a first step they borrowed £760,000 to buy the land and invest into the project. This necessitated raising the council tax precept but they made sure the electorate knew this was going to happen before they went ahead. Devon county council provided £2 million, the local district council £470,000, Devon Renaissance and the Regional Development Agency £400,000 while the Government offered £200,000.

Another £210,000 was Section 106 money which came from the development of a new Tesco supermarket in the town. This annoyed me intensely as I have always been told that this source couldn't be raised here in Bideford — and, rest assured, I will be demanding to know why Ivybridge can do this and we, seemingly, cannot. Other smaller sums and local fundraising brought in another £50,000.

As you can see it wasn't cheap but all the Bideford councillors who went were greatly impressed by both the building and the evident boost it has given to Ivybridge, but is such a scheme possible here? I think it is. We do not have to buy the land as it is already owned by Torridge and the county council whilst the latter, who initiated the Hub idea are clearly on board. Other sources of funds are available in Bideford and money could be saved by not providing a theatre — a new one is, of course, already being constructed as part of the new Bideford College. In addition to offices for hire the Hub could also have a top floor cafe/restaurant with unrivalled views over the Torridge and Victoria Park all the way up to Tapeley. Bideford town council has already voted a large sum to explore the feasibility of a new building and we could well become the lead body. The whole idea is exciting, but the problems are daunting – not least the difficulties of developing on a site possibly prone to flooding, but nothing good is ever easy as they say.

The trip certainly got town councillors talking and at the Planning Committee a few days after our trip I was intrigued to hear Cllr Philip Pester, our deputy mayor, and Cllr Emma Farrington, suggesting a radical approach to providing a new Hub. They suggested moving Torridge district council into the soon to be empty Geneva School. This would free up both the Bridge Buildings and Riverbank House (and save the wonderfully solid Geneva buildings) with the former becoming the new Hub containing a new library and associated offices. Of course, when the Bridge Trust built Bridge Buildings in 1882 (at a cost of £4,500) they let most of the structure out as offices to recoup their outlay — and the town library was also housed here! Kicking ideas around I then suggested that Torridge could sell Riverbank House as a hotel which would fulfil one of the admittedly vague ideas already listed for the new Hub. As Philip said, why build new when we will soon have a large empty building, owned by Devon county council, going begging? The fact that Devon have done nothing with the old Rectory building at the top of High Street for so long shows that they aren't the fastest of operators. I look forward to updating this story as it develops.