The current review of community buildings by the county council is now being discussed through a working group at County Hall made up of officers and councillors from all parties. I am representing the Lib Dem councillors on this issue.

The council plans to hand over to the community or close those community buildings currently under its control.  In the area I represent these buildings are:

Beaurepaire Communal Hall,  Bearpark Community Centre  both in Bearpark

Fyndoune House, Witton Gilbert

Framwellgate Moor Community Centre, Fram Moor

Woodbine House, Pity Me.

I have made it clear at the meeting that where there are existing community associations running many of these centres they should be assisted where possible to take over the centres since the Council has said that all these buildings must transfer ownership or be closed.

Some of the centres, including Woodbine House and Fyndoune House do not have much usage when compared to other buildings and can be seen as at serious risk. However it is possible that the housing associations – eg Durham City Homes – may wish to take control of these and remove them from the review, which would certainly make the review easier, but could create other issues.

Buildings like Fram Moor Youth and Community Centre have well run committees, but expecting volunteers to take over and run a building into the future is not easy when all the relevant information isn’t available.

What is critical is that because the council hasn’t invested for many years in these centres, they require substantial work to be carried out on them. The council says this work will cost over £12m but it only has £2m to spend. While I am convinced that the costs are vastly inflated this still means that there is a shortfall of funding to bring buildings up to scratch.

I believe that centres should be looking at getting quotes so that we can prove that the overall costs proposed by the council can be refuted and more centres can get possible funding out of the £2m pot, but I also think that the council should look for efficiencies elsewhere to pull in more funding from its own budget to help with this.

What is clear is that there is external funding which can be found and I will fight to ensure that as many of the centres as possible in the area I represent are kept open where it can be shown that it is worthwhile and beneficial to the community .