Town Council Rejects Community Centre Proposal

MEMBERS of the 21st Century Thame Partnership are angry and disappointed today after one of their partners, Thame Town Council, rejected a request to provide funds to buy a vacant town centre building and convert it into a community centre.
Mary Stiles, a Director of 21st Century Thame, said today: ?I am bitterly disappointed and very angry with Thame Town Council which aught to be ashamed of squandering this opportunity to provide such a much needed facility in the town.
?It was very noticeable that, apart from Cllr David Laver, the other three councillors who supported us were the younger element (Cllrs Claire Walker, Pieter-Paul Barker and Adam Buckland voted for the proposal). It just goes to show that most of the councillors have no vision.?
Mrs Stiles, a former Town Councillor herself, told the town council?s Policy and Resources committee that what was being proposed was: ?something wonderful for the town, something that would compliment what is at the youth centre in Towersey Road, Thame, and provide a drop-in centre for parents, for older people and young people both in the day and evening and space for community group hire, in fact something for the whole community.
?It immerged from the annual town meeting in April and all the community surveys that have been carried out recently that there is a proven need for such a facility and the council?s own comments in the June edition of The Town Crier repeatedly emphasises the need.?
Mrs Stiles told the committee that Barclays, the owners of the old Woolwich Building Society Building, had been very accommodating in holding the deadline for offers open for the partnership to try and obtain funding but that the deadline was very close, leaving insufficient time to put together a detailed business plan. She said that she felt sure that once the building had been acquired, any problems and concerns and a proper business plan could be dealt with.
Mrs Stiles suggest that the council had a choice; either it could loan 21st Century Thame the money from the Pickenfield fund which could be repayed from funding that the partnership was eligible for but which required a lengthy application procedure, the building could be owned jointly by the Partnership and the council, or TTC could buy the building outright and lease it to 21st Century Thame.
?You have the means,? said Mrs Stiles, ?it just needs the will.?
She said that if the worst scenario prevailed, there would still be a commercially desirable building to sell, which would make it a good investment anyway, and in the best case scenario, Thame would have a thriving town centre community centre that met the needs of very many Thame people.
She concluded: ?This is an opportunity which we mustn?t let slip through our fingers. You can?t lose and everyone would benefit.?

Mr Bob Champion, Chair of the Community and Social Working Group of 21st Century Thame, told the committee that this proposal was not just about the social provision but that it was also about providing mentoring and advise and could be a great way to break down barriers between youth and older groups.

One of those who voted against the proposal was Cllr Mike Dyer who said that he found the proposal: ?flawed in several ways,? including the lack of any figures. He did not believe that there would be enough mums with young children and regretted the lack of a full business plan showing costs for converting the building, fitting it out, running costs, rates, insurance or maintenance costs. ?I just do not think that it would be a good use of public money to purchase this building,? he added.
Cllr Adam Buckland (who voted for the proposition), read out several quotes from the recent edition of the town council?s news letter including: ?Improve the range of services and activities in the town; work in partnership with the youth service to provide a young people?s information centre; to expand the service and
offer increasingly good opportunities to young people in the local area and encouraging them to become involved in their community; to improve the cultural environment of the town for all age groups.? He added: ?Is this not what we have been waiting for? Surely this would be a much better use of our money than having it stuck in the bank gaining zero interest??

Cllr Nigel Champken-Woods said that he was concerned about the position of the building, being next to a pub and that he did not think that providing a side door from Pump lane would negate problems.

Cllr Beatrice Dobie said that she did not doubt the sincerity of 21st Century Thame and deeply regretted not being able to support the proposal because of fears over hidden costs.

Cllr Richard Walker, who is not a member of the Policy and Resources committee that was considering the request, and therefore could not vote, said: ?We are missing a trick if we do not buy this building ? this is a perfect site for a community centre. We will be letting the town down if we do not support this proposal. If I could vote I would support it whole-heartedly. If we also miss the Cattlemarket boat, which is by no means a certainty, we have missed it all.?
Cllr Buckland added that wherever a community centre is, the same expenses will have to be met.

Those who voted against the proposal were: Cllrs Dodds, Matelot-Green, Butler, Dobie, Dyer, Parker, Bretherton and Champken-Woods.

Those who voted for were: Cllrs Pieter-Paul Barker, Claire Walker, Laver and Buckland.

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Photo: Mary Stiles in front of the old Woolwich Branch building in Cornmarket, Thame, with supporter of Thame Youth Council and Musician, Pascal Ansell, who was at last night’s meeting. He told ThameNews.Net: “I am absolutely gutted about the decision; young people in this town are sick of the town council’s inertia. It seems to me that they’re very happy to fund a library but not anything which isn’t in the obvious boundries of their vested interests.”