A short statement will be made about the City Mayor’s decision on the future use of the Scout Hut in Nursery Road.
Minutes:
Steve Goddard, Head of Community Services, read a statement on behalf of the City Mayor which provided information about the future of Thurncourt former scout hut.
It was reported that last year the City Council was approached by the Scout Association to help find an organisation to take over the lease of the former scout hut in Thurnby Lodge.
Agreement could not initially be found about who should take on the lease, so in December the council had consulted with local people – sending more than 7,000 questionnaires – on two options for the use of the former scout hut, with the aim of meeting the needs of all community groups.
Option one was for the council to buy the lease of the former scout hut and give responsibility for operating the building to the Forgotten Estates Group. As-Salaam, a local Muslim group who had already used the Thurnby Lodge Community Centre and had done for some time would move to the Raven Centre.
Under option two, the council would buy the lease of the former scout hut and re-lease it to As-Salaam.
Over 1,400 responses had been received, with 1,046 in favour of option one, 125 in favour of option two, 120 with no preference and 116 returned blank.
The results on the consultation had shown that the vast majority of people who responded were in favour of the Forgotten estates Group taking over the responsibility for the former scout hut and As-Salaam moving from the Thurnby Lodge Community Centre into the Raven Centre. Under this option a small number of services that operated in the Raven Centre would be supported by the council to move into the local community centre or one of the other facilities in the area.
After considering the matter directly with all the community groups concerned option one had been agreed as the preferred option.
Although there were still some details to be agreed the Forgotten Estates Group had started work on the former scout hut and council officers were discussing the lease arrangements with As-Salaam.
Following reading the prepared statement Steve Goddard confirmed that regretfully he could not disclose the cost or any other details of the lease being negotiated.
Clarification was sought concerning the future of the groups who would be required to move from the Raven Centre to accommodate As-Salaam. It was reiterated that support would be offered to those groups with a view to them operating from the community centre or alternative community facilities in the ward.
In respect of the consultation exercise it was reported that a large amount of responses had included questions and comments which had not yet been answered. Steve accepted this point and agreed that his team would provide answers where this was possible.
In conclusion of the item, representatives of the Forgotten Estates Group commented on the considerable work which had been undertaken by volunteers to improve the scout hut facilities. Display materials showing the extent of works had been prepared and discussed as part of the Information Fair at the beginning of the meeting.
The information and update on the situation was noted.