WORK has started on a long-awaited project to put the heart into Cam village.

Diggers began work on site at Chapel Street, Cam, this week where Cam Parish Council is building a community resource centre and café.

It is a project that has been on the drawing board for nearly 15 years and was subject to numerous setbacks.

However councillors are this week celebrating the start of the project - dubbed the 'heart of Cam development' - with the building due for completion next April.

The council has also revealed that it will be working with local catering company Berry Blue Creative Food, who will run the community café, serving local, seasonal food, some of which is grown at their farm in Upthorpe, Cam.

Cllr Dennis Andrewartha, parish councillor, said: "Years of hard work from both parish and district councillors together with officers, both past and present, have at last resulted in this exciting project coming to fruition. "Not only will this development provide our community with further much-needed facilities but it will improve the appearance of the Chapel Street site and provide a centre to our village."

The development will include new offices for Cam Parish Council, together with a meeting room that will also be available for local organisations to use and an entrance area where people will be able to pick up leaflets and local information.

The café will serve food and drink all day, and Berry Blue owner Louise Brown is hoping to involve the community by working with the council to offer local schoolchildren the opportunity to learn about local, seasonal cooking.

"We were absolutely thrilled to be chosen to run the new community café in Cam," said Mrs Brown, who has lived in Cam for eight years.

"I love the idea of being able to run a café in my local area, we’ve got lots of plans for the place and I really hope to make it a location for all local people in the community to enjoy."

The café will stay open late on some evenings, which the council hopes will be of particular interest to young people, providing them with a warm, safe place to meet friends and enjoy non-alcoholic drinks and snacks.

The project has been made possible with the help of Stroud District Council, which bought the land from the Co-op in 1997 and transferred it free of charge to the parish council. The land forms part of a larger plot, the remainder of which has been earmarked by the district council for social housing opportunities.