The end of Atmos & Totnes Community Builders?

Eighteen years after a small band of idealists got together to build their Atmos dream, the end is near.
Last night at the Methodist hall the directors of Totnes Community Development Society Ltd asked the handful of members present – 34 out of 434 – whether they agreed the society should be wound up. As nobody wanted to step into their shoes, all hands but three went up.

…happy they won’t be making a claim…

TCDS is, according to its accounts, in huge debt – but as director Ian Trisk-Grove announced, all its loans look set to be forgone.

Eight out of ten lenders – many private investors – have so far agreed and he expected the final two to agree soon. All the loans were unsecured.

The sums aren’t insignificant.

One private investor took a gamble on the plans coming to fruition with a stake of £120,000.00. The Charities Aid Foundation put in £225,000. The Environmental Research Association put in £50,000.00 Frances Northrop said the lenders knew that their money was at risk if the Atmos scheme didn’t go ahead. “We have now written to them all and are happy they won’t be making a claim and that they have donated that money,” she said.

At the meeting questions were raised about how the imminent winding up – once the books have been audited and all the members have voted – would affect The Mansion, which is a subsidiary of TCDS. Ian assured everyone that while The Mansion had shared trustees it was financially separate. It would be divorced from TCDS once it wound up. Indeed, The Mansion, a charity, is keeping its head above water financially although maintenance is a huge ongoing cost. The building is valued at £1.5 million – more than Fastglobe paid for the whole of the old milk factory site.

TCDS – now known as Totnes Community Builders – failed to buy the old Dairy Crest site in 2020 when the owners, Canadian firm Saputo, sold it to Fastglobe, an Essex based industrial mastics company, for £1.35 million. One man wondered whether South Hams District Council might buy the site by compulsory purchase, as Cllr John Birch had pledged to do. But Rob Hopkins, the man behind the Atmos scheme for 18 long years, said that while Fastglobe owned the site and had two years left to run on its planning permission, it wasn’t possible. He said: “It’s been a long and extraordinary ride. The five of us who have carried this for a long time have reached the point where we can no longer see a way forward.”

Little has happened at the site since a planning inquiry in May 2024 allowed Fastglobe’s appeal.

TCDS has always insisted Fastglobe had no intention of developing the site because the cost of clearing it, providing flood defences and complying with the planners’ long list of conditions made making a profit highly unlikely. Whereas the Atmos scheme for community housing wasn’t driven by profit. And – as it’s clear from the loans being dropped – it was backed by believers.

As the meeting ended there was a round of applause for the TCDS team. Ruth Ben Tovim, who has been involved in keeping the Atmos campaign alive, said: “I know that you didn’t come to this
decision lightly and you have done everything you can. There is still a bit of me that believes the site will come into public hands.”

Before the meeting I contacted Fastglobe at its Canvey Island, Essex, headquarters to see if there was any news about the Totnes development. Its website contains details of projects it has supplied mastic for – including Disneyland Paris – but no mention of Totnes. The man who answered the phone told me the firm had no press office and “the guy who owns it is abroad.”

The directors of the company are Christopher Pugh, Craig Pugh, Emma Pugh, Paul Haviland and Michael Ward, but which one of those was abroad, I wasn’t told.
According to Companies House, Fastglobe made just over a million pounds in after- tax profits last year.