ABERGAVENNY Town Council, at a special meeting last week, unanimously rejected a request to buy the former infants school in Park Street so it can be used as a community centre reports Lesley Flynn.

Around 35 people crowded into the council chamber at Abergavenny Town Hall to hear a presentation by Laurie Jones, on behalf of the group, Abergavenny Community Centre, supported by an officer from Monmouthshire County Council, Bill Hill.

He described the group's plans to provide a community centre for use by the whole town which would include such facilities as a luncheon club for pensioners and a playgroup. He said Monmouthshire County Council had been generous in offering to sell the school site at a price of only £350,000.

But the 12 town councillors eligible to vote were against the scheme.

After the meeting Mr Jones issued a press release on behalf of the group which read: "The directors and supporters of Abergavenny Community Centre are deeply disappointed the Abergavenny Town Council has unanimously rejected the proposal to purchase the former Park Street Infants School for a community centre for the town.

" The Town Council could have obtained a loan to cover this amount and spread over 20 years it would have cost the average Band D council tax payer the sum of £7 a year. ACC Ltd had obtained outline planning consent for a community centre in 2009 from MCC."

He added: " None of the serving town councillors, apart from Douglas Edwards and Marion Pearse who are directors of ACC Ltd  and unable to vote, have visited the former school or sought to ask relevant questions regarding the building's condition.

" When town councillors consider a planning application that is complicated or may have an impact on other residents they invariably visit the site."

 His statement concluded: " ACC Ltd believes that with cuts proposed by local government a community centre would offer refuge and support to a community with a growing number of elderly residents and a place for celebration of family events and much else. The community centre would serve the whole of Abergavenny. We have not given up and will continue to seek to acquire funding for purchase and renovation of the building and grounds with the help of many local businesses and professional people. "

Mr Jones said: "We applied for funding from the Big Lottery but our bid was rejected and we were told we would have stood a much better chance if the school and land had been donated by the county council and we were just applying for money to renovate the building.  

"All we wanted was a level playing field with other applications but we were in the ditch. We are now exploring other sources of funding with the help of Bill Hill and also looking at the social policy of Monmouthshire County Council to see how that links with our strategy."

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Mr Jones said in addition to the money needed to purchase the building they would require at least £100,000 to bring the building up to standard.

He said members of the group had looked at other community centres and hoped to model the former Park Street school on the Bridges Centre in Monmouth which is thriving and is used by a multitude of community groups.

One of the people present at the meeting, Helena Cross said: "I was quite shocked to hear councillors talk about Park Street School not being worth investing in as it was not in their ward. I don't live in that ward either, yet I can still see this is a unique opportunity to have a local resource for the town to share.  "Abergavenny is not that big, and anyway it's at times like these we should be sticking together and helping each other, not saying, 'well its not in my ward, so I don't care'"

Flo Floyd added: "What a let down, they didn't seem to be interested in the building or the idea of acquiring it as an asset for the town. The building itself wasn't mentioned once.

"It's regrettable that councillors appear to be in tinkering around the edges with improving the town, like clearing up after people and dogs, rather than addressing some of the root causes of anti social behaviour. 

"They spend a great deal of the money giving to small causes which probably only affect a few hundred people at a time but are supported for the good of the community ~ the Park Street project obviously isn't in the right place or isn't showy enough.

"I thought the presentation of the Park Street Project was excellent.  I was shocked by the vote and thought that there could have been more encouragement by the councillors for such a creative project. 

"I thought the response was very closed and reactionary.  What is going to happen now?  Why don't MCC give the premises to Abergavenny?  £350,000 is peanuts in the scheme of things.  The councillors did not seem to think it their role to suggest how the project could be furthered.  After all, the project aims to give services to Abergavenny people, the constituents of all those councillors. 

Alan Finn said: "One ward councillor appeared to be saying well we've got our own facilities sorted out so why should we support you.

"For many of them their hearts seemed to be saying great idea but their heads were saying can we pull this off, will it work, will it cost us long term? And I suppose the only answer to that is only time will tell.

Barbara Hetherington suggested that the Chronicle could organise a readers' poll to see if taxpayers were willing to pay an extra £7 a year for a community centre.

Another local resident added "All very disappointing but I continue to admire your persistence and reassure you that support is on-going, just wish that the powers that be would make things easier for you all"