Hint at future of lifeline services after city council cuts off funding

PROPERTY FIRM COULD HELP COMMUNITY CENTRES

- By OLIVER PRIDMORE

NOTTINGHAM City Council's leader has hinted at what the future holds for the “lifeline” services her authority is controversially going to stop supporting.

The property firm set to take on three of the city council's libraries is now interested in supporting the authority’s community centres in future.

One community centre says the extra support would be a positive step, but they are still demanding more clarity on how the future will look when the city council's support stops.

The Post’s Protect Nottingham Community Centres campaign was launched on January 13 to call for a radical change in the city council’s approach to the vital services - everything from food banks to nurseries.

The authority has provided a subsidy of £600,000 a year to all its community centres combined and the council now wants to end these payments as it battles multimillion-pound budget gaps. The authority previously said it wanted a “core offer” of community centres to remain and that it would be trying to move them off their current peppercorn rents and onto a market-level rent - which could have led to bills for some going from £10 to £30,000 a year.

The council then announced at a meeting called for by our campaign that it had moved away from market rents and instead wanted community centres to chip in a fixed fee of around £400 a year. This fee would fund the salary of a council officer who would be solely responsible for overseeing community centres.