Our former Ruddington Youth and Community Centre has now officially been put up for sale by owners Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC).
This substantial building on The Green was most recently a fitness centre run by Project Body UK – the organisation selected by the County Council to take over the running of the former Young People’s Centre in 2014 when spending cuts meant that NCC could no longer afford to run it themselves. After reintroducing youth provision during the summer of 2016, the new tenants found they could not make it pay commercially. It has lain empty and disused since December 2016 – then got boarded up after vandals struck in April 2018. Now a long anticipated “Notice of Intention to Dispose of Asset of Community Value” has appeared on its door, posted by Rushcliffe Borough Council.
The new notice (pictured right and downloadable >>HERE<<) fulfils the required legal procedure when any owner of an Asset of Community Value wishes to dispose of the land. Community interest groups have the opportunity to be considered as a bidder for the property and can trigger a moratorium on the disposal to give them time to put together a bid. These can be a parish council, charity, company limited by guarantee which does not distribute any surplus it makes to its members, a co-operative or community benefit society which does not distribute any surplus it makes to its members or a community interest company. In this case, the deadline for bidders to get in touch is 18th February 2019.
As reported previously, Ruddington Parish Council (RPC) has ambitions to purchase the former Youth Centre. One option being considered to help fund this was to dispose of the existing Village Hall on Wilford Road. But at the last Parish Council meeting on December 11th it was resolved that no assets (including the Village Hall) would be sold off in order to fund the purchase of the site. Councillors also decided the whole site would be for community use only.
RPC Chairman, Councillor Allen Wood, told us: “The Parish Council are still interested in buying the Youth & Community Centre and have registered their interest with the Borough Council as per the instructions on the notice.” As RPC has now triggered this full moratorium period, it will end on 7th July 2019 – by which time all accepted bidders for the property will need to make their offers and detailed plans known. RPC’s aspiration is to create a new community building in the long term but to keep the existing building for the time being.
Cllr Wood also announced some welcome news for village centre shoppers: “In the meantime, we have asked the County Council if we could use the parking area at the side of the building to provide secure parking for businesses located near The Green. We are awaiting a decision on this matter, but have been assured it is in hand. We anticipate that this would free up to 10 spaces for people visiting the centre of the village.”
Not everyone in our village is entirely happy. In August 2017 a group of local residents under the banner of ‘The Green Space’ came together to propose taking over the building as a “Community Hub” should NCC decide to put it back out to tender. They launched popular social media sites and even ran a dedicated stall at Ruddington’s ‘2017 Summer Fayre’. However, this consortium claimed at the time the council seemed unwilling to talk to them – perhaps because it had already become intent on selling the building instead of re-leasing. The Green Space have announced they will not be bidding to purchase it.
Former group member, Ian Wilson, commented: “We are pleased to see that the sale looks like it is finally progressing and hope the Youth and Community Centre is soon back in use. The decision who to sell to remains the decision of the County Council, as they have previously refused to discuss a community group taking on the centre then sadly we see little point bidding. We would not want to delay this already long process any further.”
Ian says it’s important former youth provision for Ruddington should be reintroduced as part of any deal, and added: “We hope that whatever happens with the sale, this would include a commitment to local young people, the whole site remaining for the use of the community and any price agreed recognises the previous community focused lease rates. Whilst The Green Space is no longer an active group, we are sure all of those previously involved and our supporters in the wider community would be keen to help with the development of future ideas and provision of youth, enterprise and volunteering opportunities.”
You can read the procedure for administering Assets of Community Value >>HERE<<.
If you are interested in finding out more, or submitting your own bid by the February 18th deadline, you’re asked to contact:
Rushcliffe Borough Council,
Community Development,
Civic Centre, Pavilion Road,
West Bridgford,
Nottingham,
NG2 5FE
Alternatively you can email dhayden@rushcliffe.gov.uk or ctaylor@rushcliffe.gov.uk.
{TOP TWO PHOTOS: Courtesy of Howard Greville-Giddings}
