Prince Charles heads back to Poundbury (From Thisisdorset)

Prince Charles heads back to Poundbury

10:04am Monday 7th December 2009

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PRINCE Charles will be visiting Poundbury on Wednesday.

He is due to officially open Weymouth College Construction Centre and meet volunteers from the Weymouth branch of Samaritans to hand over the keys to their new van.

Before opening the College Construction and Training Centre, the Prince will lead a group of visitors on a tour of the Poundbury development.

Sara, director of the Weymouth based-Samaritans of Dorset, said: “We are looking forward to meeting the Prince.

“He is patron on the Samaritans nationally, so it is a real honour.

“His time is very precious so we are pleased that he is able to visit us.”

The Prince will hand over the keys for the branch’s new ‘Sam’s Van’.

The Prince has been Patron of Samaritans since 1999.

The Weymouth branch will celebrate its 40th anniversary in the spring of 2010.

As well as working from their premises in Weymouth, the branch has a long association with the prisons on Portland, both the Verne and the Young Offenders Institution.

Volunteers regularly visit these establishments in order to train ‘listeners’ and to receive feedback from them.

After more than a year of fundraising, Weymouth Samaritans’ new van was purchased in March 2009 for £5,000.

“Sam’s Van” can transport up to six volunteers at a time.

The van also acts as a mobile space in which anyone can speak to a Samaritan at one of the many events that they attend, such as schools, village fetes and coffee mornings.

The Dorset Construction and Training Centre has been operational since February 1 and hosts all of Weymouth College’s stone masonry provision.

It has a fully-fitted workshop that can accommodate 50 masons as well as easels for letter cutting.

As well as stone masonry the centre’s other purpose is to become a Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Construction.

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