Mapperley campaign group ‘delighted’ after saving community centre from threat of development

Haywood Road Community Centre, Mapperley.

A community group says it is ‘delighted’ after convincing Gedling Borough Council not to sell a Mapperley community centre to housing developers.

Gedling Borough Council had planned to sell the Haywood Road Community Centre due to budget cuts, but local campaign group, the Save Haywood Road Community Centre, ran a successful campaign to save it.

The centre is under joint ownership of the authority and voluntary organisation the Haywood Road Community Association. It is used every day by Haywood Road Pre-School, the only nursery in the local area, and for social activities at evenings and weekends.

The group received more than 1,000 signatures supporting a petition in favour of them taking over the community centre.

And the council has agreed to start a Community Asset Transfer which will give the community group full control of the site.

The authority is, however, still consulting whether to sell the Porchester Bowls Club, which is next door, to developers.

Paul Drury, a teacher and member of the campaign group, said: “We’re delighted the council’s listened to public opinion – the 1,277 people who bothered to reply.

“We’re now confident they’ll [the council] recognise how important that green space is to our community.”

The Save Haywood Road Community Community Centre’s petition to save the community centre from being turned into houses.

Council leader John Clarke says the authority has to make £3.5 million in funding cuts by 2020, which is why it explored the option of selling the community centre.

John Clarke, leader of Gedling Borough Council.

“The council welcomes the positive offer from people in the community to take on the future running of the centre and improve the offer,” he said.

“This is a really good opportunity for the community to work with us to bring this centre back to life.

“I appreciate that some residents would want to keep the bowling green as well and if they can put together a business case that satisfies our needs then we will consider it.

“We have to make some difficult decisions and are doing our level best to preserve community services at the same time as balancing our books.”

A vote will take place on Thursday for councillors to decide the fate of the Porchester Bowls Club.

Mr Drury the site has the potential to host open-air cinema showings, pop-up markets and an offer from a Nottingham-based company has been made to transform the ground into a heritage garden.

He said: “There’s still time for them [the council] to say: ‘No, we’re still not going to recommend the sale of this’.

“It’s up to the councillors what they want to do. We really hope they listen to the community.

“Let’s hope they follow their own recommendations that there’s a great need of some green space that the public can use.”

Mr Drury has previously said the group wants to transform the Haywood Road Community Centre into a “state-of-the-art” pre-school.

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