Uncertain future for Hawtonville Community Centre

The Hawtonville Community Centre in Newark could be taken on by housing provider Newark and Sherwood Homes.

If that does not happen, and no means can be found to increase usage, it has been suggested it should close.

The centre has just three regular bookings every week — an aerobics class, Bible class and healthy living drop-in service.

It is the only community centre in the district managed directly by Newark and Sherwood District Council.

Last year the council spent £15,323 on the building and received an income of £6,557 on bookings.

A report said a lack of community leadership at the centre meant the area was missing out on opportunities to apply for government and charitable funding.

There was also an impact on the ability to deliver a range of projects.

Last year Newark and Sherwood Play Support Group declared an interest in running the centre on a five-year, full repairing lease.

However, they pulled out after an unsuccessful bid to the Big Lottery’s Reaching Communities Fund.

Newark and Sherwood Homes is now in talks to potentially take over its management.

'If we shut it down there would be major upset'

At the district council’s environment and leisure committee Mr David Staples, who represents Boughton, suggested that if the situation could not be improved the centre should be closed.

“I support the concept of community centres like the one in Hawtonville and we have a lot of them on the western side of the district,” he said.

“They are funded by their own councils and not the district.

“We used to have one in Boughton that was very much like this one and its purpose was similar. It was closed down because it wasn’t viable.”

Committee member Mr Johno Lee believed there was still potential for centres to thrive under the right management.

“It has been proven by Bridge Community Centre and Coddington that if they are run and managed properly and taken on by the community they can be sustainable,” he said.

“If we got rid of it or shut it down there would be major upset for the community.”

Mrs Gill Dawn said lessons could be learned from the success at Bridge Community Centre, where a management committee was responsible for the centre’s day-to-day operation.

“Bridge Community Centre improved considerably after a community development worker was hired,” she said.

“He is paid and it has worked extremely well. It has got to the stage where groups are ringing up and the centre cannot accommodate them because it is so busy.

“If we could get a community development officer working from Hawtonville there could be an opportunity for some of those groups to meet there.”