Community groups fear large bill if grants are cut

Louise Holland said the proposals could lump her community group with repair bills of more than £100,000

Community centres could be faced with major repair bills if a city council's plan to slash grants goes ahead, it has been warned.

Nottingham City Council, which declared effective bankruptcy a year ago, is considering cutting grant money given to community centres by £613,000.

It is just one of a raft of savings proposed by the Labour-run council as it looks to become more financially sustainable.

A protest against continued cuts to services, including plans to reduce spending on libraries by £1.5m, was held outside Loxley House before a communities and environment scrutiny committee meeting on Wednesday.

Discussions were repeatedly interrupted throughout the meeting, as members of the public voiced their displeasure

Some demonstrators were trustees of community groups, including Louise Holland, from the Sherwood Community Centre in Mansfield Road.

The centre is run by the Sherwood Community Association, which welcomes more than 900 people to the centre each week.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she feared the proposals would lump the group with repair bills of more than £100,000.

"We have been told by the council all community centres will have to become completely self-supporting, that we will lose the support of the communities team, and will have to pay for all repairs from April 2025," she said.

"Whilst we appreciate Nottingham City Council has financial difficulties, we feel this plan is very short-sighted."

The meeting was attended by a large number of members of the public and campaigners, as councillors discussed plans for libraries and community centres.

Colin Wilderspin, strategic director of communities at the council, said the authority could no longer support the 35 community centres across the city with a subsidy due to its financial difficulties.

He said: "Nobody wants to make these decisions but we have to look at that affordability.

"There is no statutory duty for us to have community centres. We cannot continue to do it the same way because we do not have that money."

Devontay Okure, who represents St Ann’s ward, asked whether council officers had risk assessed the longer-term costs of reduced support.

"There’s a knock-on effect in subsidy removal where some community groups may not be able to afford it, which would lead to a massive deficit in community services that have been facilitated by these fantastic pillars of our community," he said.

Wilderspin said the council would encourage groups that could not afford to run the centres to submit business plans, where they could provide evidence of the social value of their work and potentially decrease rents from market rates.

He added the council would also run workshops to help groups create business cases.

Finalised plans will be presented in the new year.