Campaign group lose bid to purchase youth centre

Alfreton's Polygon Centre was put up for sale as part of Derbyshire County Council cost-cutting measures

A campaign group says it has lost out in its bid to buy a former youth centre in Alfreton and return it to the community.

Derbyshire County Council confirmed that the Polygon Centre has been sold to an unnamed charity as part of the authority's recent cost-cutting measures.

An £80,000 bid submitted by music teacher Joe Peall, who set up the campaign group Polygon Centre CIC, was rejected by the council.

In a social media post, the Polygon Centre CIC shared the "disappointing" news the council had accepted an alternative offer.

A council spokesperson said: "A sale has been agreed to a registered charity, which is keen to engage with community groups in Alfreton for the benefit of residents.

"At this stage we are unable to provide details of the purchaser or give an indication of the purchase price."

Joe Peall said he wanted to return the Polygon Centre in Alfreton to the community

Mr Peall, who is originally from Bedfordshire but moved to Alfreton two-and-a-half years ago, said he first came across the centre on a walk and was soon told about the history of the building.

After he spotted it had gone up for auction, he decided to raise his £80,000 sum, through investment and crowdfunding, to try and buy it and return it to use as a community centre.

The Polygon Centre CIC believed the centre had "so much potential".

"It's heritage, design, space and location all made it incredibly special and we were so excited to see what we could do with it", the group said.

"There were some great ideas about what groups and services they would have liked to see and we had some amazing letters of support and expressions of interest from local businesses and organisations.

"The upcoming owners of the Polygon are in a privileged position and we offer them our sincere best wishes."

The campaign group said that Mr Peall has now begun the process of refunding all the donations that were made through their Go Fund Me campaign.

While the sale is still in "very early stages", the council is confident the purchase will be completed in the next few months.