Public meeting summary

Wednesday 17th January 2024

The trustees of the Lostwithiel Community Association would like to thank all those members of our community who turned out on a cold January evening for our meeting on the future of the Community Centre.

Background to the evening:

The Centre opened 40 years ago following a fundraising campaign by local residents of the town and surrounding area, with the Lostwithiel Community Association being formed to run and administer the centre. By 2018, however, the association was facing huge problems trying to maintain the building after serious faults with the structure began to develop. A new LCA was formed to rescue the centre from closure with a new board of trustees. The LCA is now a registered charity, with the new trustees being responsible to the Charity Commission for the running of the centre on behalf of everyone within the community.

The centre is now managed by a much smaller team of staff than previously, Kirsty Mitchell, the centre manger, a caretaker and 8 part time cafe staff. In order to provide the amazing range of activities and events, the centre relies heavily on local volunteers, indeed it would be unable to survive without them.

Current situation:

With a lot of hard work and support from organisations such as the Rotary Club of Lostwithiel as well as local individuals, the centre began to tackle the serious issues it faced. The pandemic, however, hit the centre’s financial recovery plans while repairs and basic maintenance had still to be carried out. Following the pandemic, even though many groups were slow to rebuild, we were able to increase our gross income from £69.000 to £115,690, this was, however, offset by increasing maintenance and repair costs and an energy bill which rocketed from £8,500 a year to £24,000. In order to remain open the trustees were forced to use what limited reserves they had and this is of course unsustainable.

The Town Council has now provided the support necessary to delay an immediate decision but this is a short term fix since the Charity Commission who audit the centre accounts will not accept us carrying a deficit budget. The fact that our centre is still open is down to the work of our centre manager who has successfully cut costs to a minimum and successfully gained a number of grants and donations for urgent repairs and refurbishment. The reality is however that like most local community centres, rental income is not keeping up with expenditure, especially at a time when local people are struggling with the challenges of their own budgets. 

The trustees are well aware of the challenging times local people faced forty years ago when, against all the odds of austerity, they turned their dream of a community centre into reality. We now need to channel that same energy from a new generation. In order to survive the centre needs to be more adaptable to local needs, it needs to be more energy efficient and it needs to manage major works to the roof, doors and windows and drains. So how to do this while still trying to make our limited ends meet? The centre’s current Business Plan has achieved most of its aims but is no longer sufficient to meet the new challenges we now face and is in the process of being rewritten. 

As part of this process a number of local surveys have been carried out to determine current use, satisfaction levels and suggested improvements results of this are available on the centre’s website.*

The trustees have now obtained a government grant to fund architects’ proposals for a way forward, these have now been drawn up and are available to inspect at the centre. These early plans offer us an indication of what is possible if we can raise the £1,000,000 for the necessary repairs and upgrades to the current building. We are currently waiting for news on a substantial grant application to upgrade our performing arts spaces to enable us to provide a wider offering to local organisations. We now need to harness the wealth of energy, commitment and community spirit which exists in this town. We all know that closure of the centre would have catastrophic consequences on our community and we will be seeking opportunities over the next few months for you to support our determination to keep it open for the next generation. Thank you.

*[Community feedback is based on a response from 13% of the community and while this seems low, it is actually considerably higher than many official response rates and provides the necessary level of validity for us to cautiously proceed.]

 

Questions raised at the public meeting:

Does the centre have a costed and robust Business Plan for the future?

The centre’s 2022-2024 Business Plan was unable to foresee the catastrophic rise in energy costs or the extent of urgent repairs to the fabric of the building and electrics it would face in 2023. This inevitably forced the trustees to reprioritise plans for improvements. The trustees are currently working on a new Business Plan which will focus on securing its future within its severely restricted budget constraints. The new plan will be ready by the end of March and be published for inspection and comment.

Have the trustees got a strategic vision for the centre’s future?

The trustees believe that the centre’s current Business Plan demonstrates a clear strategic direction for the future. The trustees report on the progress of this at their annual public meeting to which the community is invited to share their concerns or suggestions. It should be noted, however, that until funding for the centre is secured the trustees remain very much focused on the challenge of keeping the centre open in the face of mounting economic pressures.

Can members of the community see a financial statement for the community centre? 

As a charity, the trustees have a duty to ensure its accounts are fully and independently audited. The yearly accounts have then to be sent to The Charity Commission for further auditing. This ensures that accounting is held to a considerably higher standard than may be found elsewhere. These accounts are presented for inspection to the public every year at our AGM which is widely advertised. The trustees, however, have accepted that in order to further improve transparency the accounts will be published on our website. Information is also provided by the Charity Commission here.

Should the Community Centre focus on one area such as performing arts rather than trying to cater for too many other interests?

The Lostwithiel Community Association’s remit demands that the Centre offers facilities and opportunities for the benefit of the whole community. The public meeting gave prominence to
Performing Arts because our plans and grant applications for this area are more fully advanced. The trustees are resolved to ensuring, however, that the Centre continues to offer the fullest possible range of leisure and sporting opportunities as well as community facilities such as a post office.

Why can the Centre not open for longer especially at weekends?

The Centre now operates with a much smaller team of staff than was the case with the previous Community Association. The centre has only two paid staff, a manager and a caretaker to run and maintain it, part time cafe staff ensure that this popular facility is kept open during the main parts of the day. The trustees operate within tight budgetary constraints and the further staffing required to open for longer would need to come from volunteers.

Why can the Centre not do something about improving car parking facilities?

The trustees recognise that this is a major issue for Centre users, however, it is an issue which is totally outside our control. The Community Centre does have its own identified parking spaces but controlling their use for our customers is very difficult. Opening further car parking spaces at the side of the building would be prohibitively expensive and we would be very unlikely to attract grants to enable this to happen.

Would it be possible to install a lift to the second floor of the building?

The trustees have looked at this issue in order to make the building even more accessible. However, installing a lift would be costly, especially given the constraints of the current building and would entail ongoing maintenance costs which we would be unable to budget for. There is currently only three spaces in use on the second floor and these activities can easily be relocated to accommodate anyone with limited mobility.

What fund raising plans do you have?

We are currently developing a number of new fundraising models. These include some form of share ownership by the community. Sponsorship opportunities for local business, larger companies and individuals. The opening of a professionally managed Charity Shop. The development of a Business Hub for use by individual business people or small businesses within the town. The development of a Community Hub, providing services such as banking, health and welfare outreach and sharing spaces with other local organisations to help them reduce their own overheads. In addition, the centre manager is currently planning some larger scale fundraising events involving the whole community.