The County Council is currently consulting on Community Buildings. The report they put through cabinet a few weeks ago included details of plans to close dozens of community centres where the local community was unwilling or unable to take them over permanently. The Council has included Framwellgate Moor Community Centre in this group. As part of a proactive attempt to make sure that Framwellgate Moor Community Centre is not shut down by the Labour-run Council, I have been pushing for more involvement from the Council in helping it to save money. The Labour run Council has refused me permission to invest to improve the centre using local budgets until the consultation has concluded. This means that the Community Centre has to spend more money – for example on heating bills, which could have been cut by investment in the Centre.

My persistence has paid off in the sense that the Council is carrying out a full energy survey of the building for free, using Fram as a testbed for the other buildings. This will hopefully help to reduce bills. It is also clear to me from the sterling work of the Chair and committee at the Centre, that it goes from strength to strength and is being used more than for many years.

There are still some days when rooms are available, just call in to the Centre if you are interested in hiring a room or attending an existing class. Most importantly at the moment, if you have a few hours of free time, please consider joining the Committee to help with the future of the Centre, you can contribute as much or a little time as you like helping with a whole raft of things, or just attending the monthly meetings to have your say on how the Centre is run.

Contact me if you are interested.