Community centre's vision for the future

LYMM Youth and Community Association want to employ a paid, professional manager to help the group extend its role as an integral part of village life.
The proposal, which could cost around £30,000-a-year, is highlighted in a vision for the future of the youth and community centre, in Bridgewater Street, presented to Lymm Parish Council by association chairman Steve Griffiths.
Employing a manager would be the first step in a three stage process to develop provision, organise and support volunteers who would help deliver community services and re-development the premises.
Next step would be to engage local architects to carry out a feasibility study and suggest three possible designs for the centre, give presentations to the borough and parish councils and organise a public consultation to ensure the proposals had the support of the community.
Mr Griffiths told the parish council the centre – built as a youth centre in the 1960s – was generally in sound construction but was dated. It had not kept pace with either its broader brief as a youth and community centre nor younger people’s expecations.
The exterior appearance was not well-liked and contributed little to the character of the village.
But despite the handicap of a “tired building” it hosted many activities of benefit to the community, from senior socials to community markets, film club, junior youth club.
As a result of the Community Asset Transfer approved by the borough council last year there was a “golden and exciting opportunity” to extend the centre’s role as an integral part of village life, in partnership with the borough and parish councils.
“The centre would like to become the natural home and facilitator for a wide range of essential community facilities, particularly those for the old, young, disabled and disadvantaged,” Mr Griffiths said.
“It would further like to become a hub for additional appropriate activities for relevant interests across the whole of South Warrington and even beyond.”
It was hoped to extend around and above the existing building to provide a more attractive face to the village, make more use of the canal frontage and provide more storage and user space.
Facilities could include public toilets, out-of-school alternatives to exclusion, NHS clinics, police drop-in, library services, etc.
The association was conscious the ambitious proposals would take a number of years but was keen to start the ball rolling in a modest way with a paid manager to oversee the maintenance, improvement and development of its services to the community. They would like to invite the parish council to be a partner in the development and include a sum in its budget planning which could be committed at a later stage to specific items which they felt would offer good value to the village.
Parish councillors confirmed they were fully committed to give moral support to the association but stressed they would need full details of any financial support requested before they could consider a specific amount.