The refurbishment of
Velmead Community Centre (VCC) brings together a culmination of two
long
running saga’s; how to spend the developer contributions (S106) money
from Zebon
Copse and how to safeguard the future of the Community Centre.
Long before I was first elected in 2005, I
was aware that Hart held a significant pot of money and had spent time
seeking
views of local residents as to how they felt this money should be best
spent. I
had also had discussions with representatives at Hart in an attempt get
the
money released for the benefit of local residents who had paid the
money as
part of their house purchase price. There was significant opposition
from the
ruling group at the time to allow the money to be spent on Zebon Copse.
Matters
came to a head in 2002 when the same ruling group decided
that they no longer wanted to carry on running the VCC.
By this time the Centre was well used by
local groups and had an established play group. The plan was to
transfer the
centre to the Parish Council with very little consultation. Not wishing
to lose
the only community facility in the area, the Parish Council entered
into discussions
with Hart with the view that they could only take it over if it was
possible to
make it financially viable. Following consultation with the users, the
Parish
Council believed that this could be done by implementing changes and
enhancements
to the Centre, funded by the unused developer contributions.
Discussions had barely
begun when, in 2003, the Leader of Council and ward member for our area
announced at a Full Council meeting that unless the Parish Council took
over
the centre quickly, it would be closed down. Thankfully the Parish
Council
persevered and persuaded them not to carry out their threat of closure.
Over the next three years, there followed a
period of protracted negotiation with many false starts as the Hart
Cabinet
members kept changing their mind as to the best approach. In 2006 when
the CCH
/ Lib-Dem Coalition took control, there was yet another change of
direction. This time for the better. The
proposal was to
form a genuine partnership with the Parish Council to achieve a four
years
phased handover of the facility allowing the Parish to get to grips
with the
issues associated with running quite a large community centre, which
includes two
halls and sports facilities. Agreement was quickly achieved; money
allocated to
appoint an architect and plans drawn up for the building changes. Even
so,
there were many issues to be agreed and, as always, the complex legal
agreement
between the two parties took time to complete to the satisfaction of
both sides.
In April 2008, following presentation of the Parish Council’s business
plan,
the Coalition Cabinet approved the expenditure of the money on the
refurbishment
project.
The project
was dealt a
further blow when the tenders from contractors revealed that the work
would
cost well in excess of the budget. Undeterred, the Parish Council
revised the plans
to be less ambitious and sought new tender responses.Finally in
December 2008, a response was
received that was within budget. Despite an 11th hour attempt over
Christmas by the Conservative
leader
to scupper the project by trying to claw back from the project much of
the
money approved by the previous administration, the building contract
was
awarded and Hart and Crookham Village PC signed the legal agreement for
transfer. Building work has now begun
and will be complete by the start of the school term in September.
This will provide new facilities including a
small stage, a completely new kitchen, additional storage and a fully
refurbished children’s play area. Little did I think in 2005 when one
of my
election pledges was to secure the future of the Community Centre that
it would
take this long, but the outcome will have been worth the wait.
Published by: Julia
Ambler, 39 Du Maurier Close, Church Crookham, Hampshire, GU52 0YA