A FORMER Wellington pub is set to become a community centre hosting a café, toddler groups, and a food bank to support the town’s most vulnerable.

The High Street venue, The King’s Arms, will become a safe and fun space for children and adults around Wellington, offering a range of accessible services, beginning in July.

The former pub closed in 2015 and remained empty until it was purchased by Falcon Rural Housing Ltd in June of 2021.

The Wellington-based housing service is leasing the ground floor to the town council for it to become a community centre, and the two floors above are set to become four social-rented flats.

The community space project, which began 12 months ago, is being developed by project manager Helen Acreman, Pete Joint, and representative of Churches Together Bob House, driven by Wellington Town Council and Falcon Rural Housing Ltd.

One Team coordinator and Connect Somerset area champion, Pete Joint said: “Our vision is to make the site into some sort of community hub.

“We are looking particularly at early intervention as much as possible, working with vulnerable families, children, and adults. We also want this to be a young person’s hub, we want somewhere they can come to.

“What we’re really trying to do here is make a space that’s accessible to everybody, but we don’t want to take away from everything that’s already going on in Wellington. What we’re really good at is signposting and that will be a major focus for this project.

“We’re hoping, fingers crossed, to be open by July, even just a soft opening. It would be great to be open over the school holidays.”

The King’s Arms community hub is set to open gradually from July, with an official launch expected in September.