A COMMUNITY group is now rebuilding after it received a special cash fund following a devastating fire earlier this year. 

Clevedon Men's Shed - a community workshop that sees men able to use tools and meet - can now be saved after a £5,000 fund was secured from St Monica Trust and Quartet Community Foundation.

In April, vandals set fire to wooden decking, a seating area, workstation and timber store. 

The funding from North Somerset older people’s community grant will help to provide a gate, fencing, security lighting and CCTV cameras to make the site secure.

It's open to groups across the district that offer activities and projects supporting older people.

David Young, secretary of Clevedon Men's Shed, said: “The funding was pivotal to the future of the club, as it gave us the confidence to rebuild and we’re exceptionally grateful to the St Monica Trust and Quartet Community Foundation.

“The site was previously accessible to the public and if we had just rebuilt the decking without first making the site secure, there was always the chance that it would be burnt down again."

The group currently has 43 members and meets twice a week.

He added: “The group was originally set up with the purpose of addressing loneliness, social exclusion and social isolation among older men in the local area. Now that it has matured over the last five years it has become a registered charity.

“We have members who are bereaved, are full-time carers for their partner, have retired and miss male company, or are just looking for enjoyable and useful things to do in their retirement.

"The group is an immense benefit in terms of well-being to everyone involved.”

St Monica Trust’s giving lead, Catherine Robinson, said: “The environment the shedders have created is such a special place for the group’s members and they generously help so many others in the community.

“We are very proud to join the community of Clevedon in supporting their rebuild through the grant scheme which will allow older people to continue to enjoy this highly regarded and much loved facility.”