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Our Community Bus: A Mobile Hub for the Heart of The North Wessex Downs
Our Community Bus is an innovative, mobile hub designed to bring vital support directly to the heart of the Pewsey Vale, Marlborough, and beyond. By transforming a classic double-decker bus into a permanent home for Positive Community Action (PCA), we are ensuring that help is always within reach, no matter where it is needed.
A Hub of Activity
The bus is much more than a vehicle, it is a versatile space designed to serve the community in multiple ways:
The Kitchen and Food Hub: The downstairs area is already complete, featuring a professional kitchen, a serving hatch, and a climate-controlled storage room. This allows us to rescue food from retailers and distribute it through our Foodshare and BURP programmes. It enables our chefs to prepare meals ready for dispatch and to teach members of our community how to cook from ingredients we’ve grown, rescued or have had donated to us.
The Friendship Café and Community Space: Upstairs, the bus houses a welcoming café area and a dedicated space for workshops, creative projects, and a place to sit and chat.
Administrative HQ: We have even included a small office upstairs to keep our admin and operations running smoothly behind the scenes.
Why a Bus?
After moving between temporary locations, we decided to create a permanent home that can move with the community. Our distinctive red and white bus, featuring a panoramic roof, provides us with flexibility and security. It serves as a mobile headquarters that helps us bridge the gap for those facing isolation or food poverty in our rural areas.
Be Part of the Journey: Help Us Finish the Conversion
We have come a long way with the incredible help of local businesses and volunteers. The bus is taxed, primed for a fresh MOT, and the downstairs is ready. We are now in the final push to get the hub fully operational and out on the road.
We are currently looking for help with:
- Specialist Fittings: We need professionals to help us fit a diesel heater for the winter and install solar panels on the roof so we can operate sustainably.
- Carpentry: We are looking for a carpenter to help finish the community hub and the office space upstairs.
- Join the Driving Team: We are looking for qualified bus drivers to help us take our services into the heart of different villages.
- The BURP Team & General Support: We need help with all our services, from food recovery, growing food, cooking to general maintenance and helping run the café.
If you have a skill to share, a few hours to spare, or can help us reach the finish line, please join us in making this unique community resource a reality.
Contact us: together@ourpca.uk
Our Journey & The Road Ahead
Positive Community Action is evolving. What started as an agile response to local needs is growing into a permanent fixture of support for the Vale of Pewsey and Marlborough.
The Double-Decker Community Hub
Our iconic converted double-decker bus is set to be the heart of our operations. It is important to note that the bus is not used for transport; it is a mobile, multi-purpose community hub. We have been working tirelessly to ensure it is a high-quality space for all:
- Downstairs: We have completed a full kitchen and food storage area, featuring a serving hatch for efficient distribution.
- Upstairs: The top deck houses a welcoming cafe area and a community space, along with a small office where we manage our essential administration.
- Final Touches: We are currently finishing the final painting, insulating and cladding the walls in our café space upstairs and searching for professionals to help with the final touches.
📍 Why a Double-Decker Bus?
For a long time, PCA was passed from pillar to post, operating out of temporary spaces wherever we could find them. We realized that to provide stable, long-term support, we needed a permanent home, but we also needed to reach people who are isolated in rural areas across the Pewsey Vale, Marlborough, and beyond.
The bus is our answer. It is a fully autonomous, mobile headquarters. It isn’t used for passenger transport, rather, it is a mobile hub that allows us to bring our vital services, a warm cup of tea, and a friendly face directly to the communities that need them most.
🌾 The Big Picture: A Mobile Outreach Hub
Once the final technical touches are complete, the bus will hit the road as a mobile outreach vehicle. It will connect our rural villages, acting as a flexible asset to deliver food recovery, host workshops, and offer a space for connection.
But that is just the beginning
⚡ Looking Ahead: The Marlborough Sanctuary & Community Farm
Our long-term strategic vision is to integrate the double-decker bus into an even larger project, The Marlborough Sanctuary.
We are actively working towards plans that include a community farm initiative. The dream is to have a permanent site where we can grow fresh produce on-site, combining local food production with our food recovery efforts. The bus will sit at the very heart of this, bridging the gap between farm-to-community support and providing a mobile baseline for rural resilience.
🤝 Help Us Reach the Finish Line
We are entirely volunteer-led, and this massive undertaking is only possible because of our incredible community. We are currently looking for:
Tradespeople & Hands-on Help: To help with the final technical bits.
Drivers: Anyone with an HGV licence who would be willing to help us move the bus when needed.
Service Volunteers: For all of our ongoing projects, from the BURP team to our weekly Foodshare.
Whether you have professional skills to offer, a few hours of spare time, or want to learn some practical skills alongside our team, we would love to welcome you.
Let’s build a stronger, more connected community together. To find out more about our future plans, register as a volunteer, or support our work, please visit OURPCA.uk
WHY DO WE OWN A DOUBLE-DECKER BUS?
After being passed from pillar to post, not having any permanent premises of our own, we made the decision to buy a double-decker bus to run our services from. Our organisation is forever evolving with the changing needs of our society, and we have many projects which we would love to run from this double decker to help improve lives of those in our communities.
WHERE DID WE GET IT FROM?
We drove her down from Scotland to her new home in Wiltshire and began the steady conversion to the new PCA HQ.
BUT WHY A BUS?
Having a home of our own, on wheels, gives us the security we need while enabling us to be mobile and reach more people in our communities.
IS THE BUS ON THE ROAD?
As we are serving meals, distributing food and essentially running a mobile community hub, we are currently converting the bus to reach strict food hygiene standards. Once the bus is fully converted we will take her into the heart of our communities.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO CONVERT?
As we are a volunteer organisation, relying on the good will, skills and spare time of our volunteers, this process has taken longer than we initially anticipated but with the recent rebrand and registration as
an official Community Interest Company, we hope to attract more professional help and funding.
