Does The Community Centre Have A Future?

[Andy Millne]

The community centre is up for sale and set to close in the very near future. It is currently being run on a temporary basis by Blyth Valley Leisure and has previously been subsidised to the tune of £78k per year.

Does it have a future?

[SuperMan]

By the looks of it no, never really used it myself

Edited December 10, 2009 by SuperMan

[Monsta®]

have to be a big no! as i only ever been in once and that was to use there toilet!

[rachael]

i'm actually quite a fan of the Commy! Cheap drinks, good banter, gigs occasionally. Meh

[Dr Pit]

It is an excellent venue for wedding do,s etc. Good value, good size.

Be a shame if it closes, no where else as good in the town.

[Mr Darn]

not a bad upstairs area for other things. I had my first martial arts class on that polished floor!

[Merlin]

What! You had marital arts sessions in the community centre, then you went upstairs for other things, how much does it cost, where can I book, I'll have a bit of that

[Mr Darn]

thought that sort of thing was more to the east of bedlington... above a popular fast food place, with a blue door, and red curtains if i remember right? ( do i know too much about this??!?!?)

back to being serious, i had my first instructor session in the soft play room too, and my first experience of being sick through physical exaustion, and my first broken rib, and my .....

Pleased we moved to better premisis after those first few sessions, but the memories (and sirens) are still quite vivid!

Being made to do 100 pressups because my senior instructor round-kicked me through the fire doors was going a bit too far i think... (apparently i did not bow on the way out of the Dojo!!!)

Ahh, the good old days.... Time for a reunion?

[Merlin]

:lol:

[Malcolm Robinson]

I think to answer the original question we would need to have far more information. Of course people are shooting from the hip saying this facility should remain within their community, its only natural, because clearly once this building is lost to us there isn't another one which could replace it. Its position alone deserves genuine consideration. If we blindly accept the figures quoted, and I have heard the subsidy figure as between 76-100k per year, then for this facility to remain within community ownership I would imagine the Town Council would have to take it over and impose an extra charge of around £50 per year per household, increasing annually, to subsidise it.

Thing is long gone are the days when I will accept such randomised figures from any authority so before I could answer your question GGGG here are a few of my own which I think need answering and which I hope the county have asked themselves before they took the decision to offload this building.

An accurate true net worth of the building, in the current poor commercial market!

Structural integrity, does it need any remedial works now or in the near future?

A competent inspection of accounts, income and expenditure, can any savings be made there or new income flows generated?

Could new investment produce the required return?

Could a change of direction be cost effective and produce a return?

Does the building meet current and proposed public usage legislation?

These are just some of the more commercial questions which need to have been asked but because we are talking about a community asset here we also need to be asking other more politicised questions such as does this community have a need for such a building, does the authority have a duty of care to retain the cost and provide this service, etc, etc, etc.

I would think it will boil down to hard economics at the end of the day and maybe in its current guise the figures will not stack up, but then maybe there is no one with any entrepreneurial flair on the payroll who could provide the innovative style needed to save it?

I think we all have a duty to be asking questions of our elected leaders and officers especially at this time of financial trouble. They have to justify the decisions they make on our behalf and we for our part have to be open minded and sensible about things. We can just sit back and watch as one of the last of our community owned assets is flogged off and the money swallowed by county or we can behave in a responsible manner and apply a rigorous stress test to each step of the process.

[Merlin]

How can they come up with £76-100k to run this building? Are they pushing other losses on to this building to justify getting rid? Now if you want someone to run said community centre, then I would suggest a bit of poaching! Get the person who runs GuidePost community centre, you can virtually guarantee that there is something going on there every day or night for and involving the people of the community! Also one big point about GuidePost community centre is that the local people USE it!

[Malcolm Robinson]

I agree Merlin and there is other stuff which could be looked at as well, such as maybe it could be split with the community retaining say the ground floor. That would certainly reduce this subsidy figure and mean we get to keep a central and viable community centre? Maybe it could be taken over for us by a charitable trust? Lots of questions not many answers!

[Stephen]

This is my own opinion and not a Town Council suggestion...

As there is apparently a question mark over the library too, I wonder how feasible it would be to move the bookshelves from the library to the ground floor of the community centre, with the bar area being the main part of the library (and the librarian working behind the bar), and the children's library in the youth room. Then potentially you could have a library on the Front Street, opposite the new Market Place, guarantee the future of a decent looking building on that side of the street, keep the use of the room on the top floor (I don't think there's any other room of that size available in Bedlington?) and sell the land that the current library building is on.

[ex Bedlingtonian]

This is my own opinion and not a Town Council suggestion...

As there is apparently a question mark over the library too, I wonder how feasible it would be to move the bookshelves from the library to the ground floor of the community centre, with the bar area being the main part of the library (and the librarian working behind the bar), and the children's library in the youth room. Then potentially you could have a library on the Front Street, opposite the new Market Place, guarantee the future of a decent looking building on that side of the street, keep the use of the room on the top floor (I don't think there's any other room of that size available in Bedlington?) and sell the land that the current library building is on.

The Community Centre used to be the library!!

[Stephen]

The Community Centre used to be the library!!

How long ago was that? I suppose that means it must be possible unless the old library had any big problems.

It could be argued that this would be a step backwards then, but I think it might be a way of keeping what's most useful about the community centre. You can book much better small and medium sized rooms at the Salvation Army, and there are other places to drink if not so many as there used to be. The one facility that doesn't seem to have any substitute is the big room available for public use.

[Blank]

As there is apparently a question mark over the library too

What's happening with the library?

[Andy Millne]

Our very own Shagpile has a gig there next weekend.

[Stephen]

What's happening with the library?

There was a story in The Journal saying that the County council would be looking at the least used libraries as part of the budget discussions. According to the Journal Bedlington Station was in the bottom six, and Bedlington was outside this six but in the bottom 12. So we don't know if anything will happen to the library, but can't assume it will be safe either.

[Blank]

There was a story in The Journal saying that the County council would be looking at the least used libraries as part of the budget discussions. According to the Journal Bedlington Station was in the bottom six, and Bedlington was outside this six but in the bottom 12. So we don't know if anything will happen to the library, but can't assume it will be safe either.

I'm not surprised Bedlington Station library was in the bottom six. They have a very poor selection of books and the library itself is small.

In my opinion Bedlington library isn't that much better either. I find that the majority of their non-fiction books are old / out dated.

[Andy Millne]

I agree the non-fiction section is appalling. The only books I've ever taken out are ones requested and ordered in especially.

Oh and they wouldn't let me leave any Bedlington.co.uk flyers next to the computers. First time they agreed and said they'd put them out. Next time I went in and asked if they'd been put out I was told "it wasn't policy".

So.. doesn't surprise me really. Another potentially useful resource improperly managed.

[Monsta®]

hahaha when there to look at the computer section! windows 95 for dummies and ms office 6 not what i would call up to date!

[Malcolm Robinson]

I think Stephen has a good point, use the building to incorporate other service deliveries into, the library being an excellent suggestion! I really don't think we can afford to loose the community centre as I have already said its position alone deserves serious consideration.

Tentative enquires have already been made about the library, as a possible venue for youth provision if it did close, but we were told the land belongs to the Area Health Authority and the doctors practice there would like to expand.

[threegee]

...

Oh and they wouldn't let me leave any Bedlington.co.uk flyers next to the computers. First time they agreed and said they'd put them out. Next time I went in and asked if they'd been put out I was told "it wasn't policy".

...

Where is the policy that one community resource refuses to help another! More likely it's someone's feels their comfy little domain is being threatened. I will take this one up with someone "higher up" and report the results.

[Andy Millne]

Where is the policy that one community resource refuses to help another! More likely it's someone's feels their comfy little domain is being threatened. I will take this one up with someone "higher up" and report the results.

There should be more than just flyers. The homepages should be set at B.co.uk by default.

[angechica]

I feel strongly that people should be objecting on principle to losing resources such as community centres and libraries. As someone has pointed out maybe the CC is not the best run and if this was improved it would be much more of a hub for community activities.

One thing I would specifically like to mention is the parent and toddler group on Tuesdays. The Catholic church are apparently closing their Monday group down as well. As a relative newcomer to the north east, going to groups like this really helped me meet other parents and feel part of a community for the first time since moving to Bedlington! I feel sad that these groups are dwindling.

On a cynical note, I bet the council could have easily funded the running of the community centre / library for a year or two with the money they secured from Tesco for the precious York stone (or whatever it is) for the market place.