Queen Camel community centre flood fundraiser launched

People living in a village hit hard by flash flooding have set up crowdfunding campaigns to help pay for the damage.

The Old School community centre and Camelicious cafe in Queen Camel, Somerset, were devastated on 9 May.

Although the centre is covered by insurance, the owners and tenants say insurance won't meet the total clean-up costs.

Much of the premises is now unusable, meaning community services have stopped.

The Old School hosts a day centre for older people, specialist therapy for adults and children with complex mental health needs and a cafe that trains young adults with learning difficulties.

"This has all had to stop, and their needs continue," said Rosemary Heath-Coleman, chair of Queen Camel Community Land Trust.

"We're going to have to work our socks off to get it back up and running again.

"We have insurance but I'm not sure its going to cover all that needs restoring," she added.

Located in the Old School building, the Camelicious Cafe works with people with learning disabilities and is run by the charity able2achieve.

Area manager Caroline Packer told BBC Points West: "We've only got a limited amount of money and I've got white goods to replace, a kitchen to replace and all those additional bits like loss of stock loss of earnings."

Ms Heath-Coleman told BBC Radio Somerset that the flood was the highest that Queen Camel has experienced, describing it as like "a tidal wave coming down from beyond."

The Old School said all tenants have been given a rent holiday and the community centre are feeding their many volunteers, which equates to a losses of approximately £10,000 per month.

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