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Closure of community centre due to council cuts ‘soul destroying’, trustee says

By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter

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The planned closure of a community centre in Bulwell due to council cuts has been branded “soul destroying” by a trustee.

Bulwell Hall Community Centre, in Lawton Drive, has announced it will close its doors at the end of June.

It follows Nottingham City Council’s decision to cut all subsidies to help run community centres, and introduce new leases which will leave them with higher rents and maintenance costs.

Steve Parkinson, a trustee of the Bulwell Hall Community Association, which runs the venue, said the group is being forced to close the centre due to unsustainable costs.

He says they had been struggling to pay energy bills, which amounted to £3,000 in the last three months, even before the added rent and maintenance costs now expected in the future.

“It was hard enough until the council withdrew what little support, and has been reducing support, they have put there,” he said.

“They put people in there to support the volunteers that were running them. They used to give us small grants and used to pay for most of the running costs of the building, not the energy costs, but the maintenance of the building. It is theirs after all.

“We just haven’t got the money. They say we should apply for grants, but charitable trusts like to fund activity, not payments to keep up a council building.

“It is hard to see how we are supposed to continue. Some of the attitude from the council has been really discouraging, which is to say it is your responsibility, it is your fault. The fact we are now seen as a business is just soul destroying.”

Cheryl Durrant, a personal trainer for the Baby and Me group, had only set up in the centre six weeks ago.

“It took a while, quite a few months, to get the funding through for this group, because it is a free group sponsored by Sports England,” she said.

“It has only been open for about six weeks and we have about four years’ funding for this.

“To get mums that are slightly apprehensive, and we’ve got them inside and starting to train, and all of a sudden now being told it is closing down, it is hard on them and hard on me as well.

“We are going to start looking for other centres to see if we can switch everything over, but it is also looking to see if mums and parents in this area can actually access the different centres now and keep the group running.

“There are not a lot of community centres still open, and not a lot of spaces where you can have this going on.”

The council currently manages 35 community centres across the city, supported by a team of four council staff members and a total subsidy budget of £613,000.

It previously said it wanted to charge community centres market rents under plans to become more financially sustainable, meaning rents could have risen from as low as £10 per year to as high as £30,000 per year.

However, following criticism from the leaders of some community centres, it was agreed they should be charged rents solely to recover any costs to the council.

Community associations would also be liable for any repairs and maintenance costs under the new arrangements.

The new plans were endorsed by the council executive members on March 18, with new lease arrangements to be put in place by April 2026.

A council spokesperson said: “We have made a commitment to enable and empower associations to manage the long-term upkeep of community centre buildings, running dedicated sessions on grant applications, business planning, and effective procurement.

“So it’s sad that the Bulwell Hall association has decided not to continue running the centre, but we understand that each association has to make decisions based on their own particular circumstances.

“We will work with the local community to see how services provided through the centre could be accommodated elsewhere, and any disposal or re-purposing of the building will be managed through our existing property policies.”