Reaching out to try to give community centre a new future

A charity that helps adults with learning disabilities has been given the go-ahead to take over a community centre with a difficult past.

Reach Learning Disability, which has outgrown its Newark home of nine years — Barnbygate Methodist Church Hall — wants to take on the running of Hawtonville Community Centre in the town.

The centre is managed by Newark and Sherwood Homes, the housing provider of Newark and Sherwood District Council.

Members of the council’s leisure and environment committee were asked to consider granting a three-year tenancy.

Council officer Mr Andy Hardy told the committee the centre had a chequered history with a number of attempts to make it successful having failed, but efforts were being made to re-energise the facility.

He said evening usage was increasing, but daytimes remained challenging.

Reach would like sole use of the ground floor on weekdays, from 8am to 4pm.

The Newark base of the charity, which caters for more than 100 people, wants to stage activities at the centre, such as drama, dance, and life skills, for its clients, from 9am to 3.30pm.

The centre currently has bookings for aerobics, yoga, the Elaine Varney School of Dance, a youth club, a Bible class, indoor mini-soccer, and one-to-one educational support for young people who are outside mainstream education.

There would still be potential for shared contact points for the police and Newark and Sherwood Homes, a place for meetings, drop-in sessions and community activities upstairs.

'I know how difficult this building has been'

It has been suggested that Reach could take on the overall centre management and administration, managing the bookings of other users in an attempt to maximise income and occupancy.

It could also be responsible for the operational costs of the building and low-level maintenance in return for retaining money generated by user groups. That could mean the centre would not cost the council money. Previously the centre has been a loss-maker.

Committee member Mr Peter Duncan said: “I know how difficult this building has been.”

He said its long-term future could be determined by the YMCA sports and well-being village development off Elm Avenue.

The committee agreed to the principle of a tenancy, with the council’s director of safety, Karen White, given delegated authority to progress the negotiations with Reach.

She said: “The council will be working closely with the Reach Newark team to draw up an agreement that will enable the organisation to move into the community centre as soon as possible.

“One of the outcomes of the Hawtonville Neighbourhood Study was to encourage increased usage of the centre and improve its value to the community. This initiative will assist in that.

“The terms of any agreement will ensure the building remains an important community facility.”

Reach, which started as Southwell Care Project in 1999, was set up by parents of children with learning disabilities in the town who were worried about the lack of support and services for their children as they reached adulthood.

It now has centres in Newark, Southwell and Mansfield as well as a horticultural social enterprise base on the edge of Southwell.