Townfield Community Centre Refurbishment

The £30 million Community Assets programme, funded by the Office of the Third Sector and delivered by the Big Lottery Fund, is a programme to enable third sector organisations to have greater control over the assets they use, such as community buildings.

One organisation to receive an offer is the Townfield Community Centre in Hayes, which has been refurbished with a major grant of over half a million pounds from the Government Community Asset Fund. The local Hillingdon Community Trust also donated £100,000 to the refurbishment of the centre.

John McDonnell, Local MP for Hayes and Harlington, said “This is a fantastic breakthrough in our campaign to refurbish Townfield Community Centre and to restore it for community use.

For several years now the community centre has remained closed because of the poor fabric of the building and as a result of health and safety concerns. These were caused by a failure of the council to invest in the basic upkeep of the building over the years.

Our local councillor, Lynne Allen has worked with me to press for action to refurbish the centre. As a result, a group comprising of Councillor Allen, local residents and officers from Hillingdon Homes have worked hard to secure funding for the centre’s refurbishment.

I am pleased to inform you that we have recently gained a major grant of over half a million pounds for the Government Community Asset Fund set up by the Government office of the Third Sector and administered by the Big Lottery.

A site that was becoming an eyesore is now a valuable community asset that will now be restored and properly managed for the long term.

I would like to thank all those who have been involved in securing a bright future for our community centre.” 

submitted by John on 12 Jun 2008 at 08:44