"An absolute disgrace" - Councillors seeking solution as community centre car park set to close for two years
“It’s just an absolute disgrace because we’ve got so many people that use this building”
Councillors have said that communication between the council and local communities is “not good enough” after Arbourthorne Social Centre were given just a few weeks’ notice that their car park would be taken out of action for two years.
Park and Arbourthorne councillors Ben Miskell and Matt Smith attended a meeting about the future of the centre’s car park on Monday, November 2, after it was announced that developers of the near Uriah Rennie Leisure Centre would be taking over most of the space while construction took place.
Users of the community centre on East Bank Road and members of the Arbourthorne TARA (tenants and residents association) were given only a few weeks’ notice of the closure, which is currently to begin on November 9.
“It’s just an absolute disgrace because we’ve got so many people that use this building,” Coun Smith said.
“They come here, they’ve got mobility needs, they’re disabled, elderly etc. and they need that car park to get here otherwise it’s not possible.”
The Reform UK councillor said developers are taking over “pretty much the whole car park”, leaving only a limited space for service users.
Meanwhile, it is has been argued that alternative parking provisions further down the road that the council has offered won’t work for attendees, many of whom are disabled and elderly and need to be dropped off at the doorstep.
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“This building’s too important to the community and you’re going to not have anyone be able to use it,” Coun Smith continued.
“They’ll have to cancel their big events, their Christmas party - for two years, it’s not a small length of time.”
Labour’s Ben Miskell said that the centre is “a really great part of our community” and that he has called on council officers to consider relocating a work cabin that would take over much of the car park.
He added: “My job is to advocate on behalf of the local community and that’s entirely what I’m doing.
“What I see here is not good enough. We’ve got hard working council officers doing a super job, we’ve got a great project and a brilliant story of a £51 million rebuild of a leisure centre, but the communication isn’t very good and the discussions with different stakeholders and different parts of our community hasn’t been very good.
“So I want lessons to be learnt form that, but fundamentally I want to see the leisure centre built but I also want to see the TARA be able to operate.
“Hopefully the council can find a solution that pleases everyone.”
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Coun Miskell went on to say that the local community had “suffered immensely” from years of austerity under Conservative governments and centre’s like this need to remain open.
“Almost 50 per cent of the city’s budget was taken away and it really did impact the services that people value here,” he continued.
“We saw buildings close and we saw services diminish.
“Now we’re seeing investment in our community - but actually we have to make sure that all users of this centre of this TARA are part of the discussion about what happens next.”