Disability hub spreads festive cheer with crafting

A Santa's workshop has sprung up in an industrial unit that teaches work skills to adults with learning disabilities and autism, and was threatened with closure earlier this year.

The Industrial Hub in Hampton, on the outskirts of Peterborough, has been festooned with festive inflatable decorations, and people there craft wooden Christmas gifts such as snowmen, trees, bird boxes and chopping boards.

Hampton Handy Crafts, based at the hub, is run by City College Peterborough and gives work experience and training to people aged between 18 and 79.

Hub co-ordinator Sarah Lewis said the day centre provided members with a purpose throughout the year and they referred to it as "coming to work".

The sense of fulfilment extended beyond work too, she added.

"It's like an extended family - a lot of them have been coming for over 30 years," said Ms Lewis.

"They've known each other for ages and they call it their community."

This year, the team was asked to create a seasonal display at nearby Ferry Meadows park, which involved making a large Christmas tree, reindeer and sleigh out of old wooden pallets.

Hampton Handy Crafts also sells its handmade products in the Unity shop at Queensgate - with customers often asking for challenging creations that then become part of the group's collection each year.

Alongside its Christmas crafts and items such as birdboxes and hedgehog homes, the workers make kindling by recycling donated pallets.

More than 2,000 people signed a petition to help save the Industrial Hub earlier this year when Peterborough City Council announced it wanted to save £500,000 a year by axing the centre.

However, it won a reprieve with the council saying in May that continuing to fund the service was the "right thing to do".

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