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Group bidding for Leeds community centre takeover
From left, Betty Sutch, Lorraine Townsend, Laurie Slack and Ian Greenberg outside the centre.
A residents’ group is hoping to win the battle to take over a popular community centre when the tenancy expires this year.
The Lingfield and Fir Trees Residents Association is proposing to ask locals to donate £1 per person per year to keep the Open House Community Centre open should their bid be successful.
Leeds City Council currently runs the community centre in Moor Allerton, but is looking to pass on the running and operating of the building to a new tenant.
The Lingfield and Fir Trees Residents Association is one of the bidders, along with other businesses who want to turn the centre into shop premises.
However, if other bidders won, the site would not necessarily remain a community centre – and the resident association believes it is a much-needed facility.
As well as the £1 per person per year contribution from the local community, the association would look at charging groups from outside the area who want to use the centre as a meeting point.
Secretary Lorraine Townsend said: “It’s been suggested that there should be funding available should we be successful, but obviously the way things are at the moment, the funding isn’t going to be what it has been in the past.
“There will be a shortfall so we’ve been talking about how we can raise the funds and one of the main suggestions was asking people if they would care to donate £1 per year for three years.”
Chairman Ian Greenberg added: “We would like contributions; it’s not membership as such, because the idea is that the community centre will be open to all residents in the area and we would hope to have it open on a daily basis.
“As we’re a relatively poor area, with a 20 per cent deprivation rate, we would ask for voluntary contributions and hope to make up for any shortfall in money.”
The community centre, on Lingfield Drive, currently provides meeting places for the young and old alike, with activities including youth groups and computer clubs for older people.
Leeds City Council are expected to make a decision about who will run the facility in March, with Lorraine saying the group was “quietly confident”.
She added: “It was suggested at a meeting that people would like the tenants and residents association to take over the management of the centre. The feedback we’ve had is that people want a community facility for them to use.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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