News

COMMUNITY CENTRE FACING CLOSURE

A report into the future of the Hawkinge Community Centre published this week says funding must be found or it will have to close its doors.

Commissioned by the Hawkinge Partnership, the report recommends that Hawkinge Parish Council agrees an immediate short-term grant to create the breathing space needed to consider future funding options.

Copies of the report which was prepared by Colin Franks, a Neighbourhood Renewal Advisor with the Department for Communities and Local Government, have been sent to Hawkinge Parish Council, the Community Centre Trustees, Shepway District Council and the Hawkinge Partnership.

It was produced at the request of a group of organisations in Hawkinge following growing concerns about the viability of the centre. It operates at a loss of £20,000 a year and has debts of £45,000.

The community centre, which opened in 2003, cost around £1.80 million to build. Once building was complete, its operation was transferred from the parish council to the Community Centre Trust which has run it ever since.

As well as recommending that the parish council considers a short-term grant, the report recommends investigating setting up a limited liability charity to run and operate the centre, moving the liabilities of the centre to the new limited-by-guarantee management trust and moving the freehold to the parish council as custodian trustees.

It also calls on all parties to look at alternative funding that might be available to support the community centre in the longer term.

Hawkinge Parish Council Chairman David Callahan has called an extraordinary meeting of the council on Wednesday 30 August 2006.