Guilsfield Community Centre trustees to restructure management of centre

GUILSFIELD Community Centre Trustees will set up two separate committees to run a centre and the land with it.

This follows a month long consultation where 98.9 per cent of people who responded, were in favour of the proposals to change the way the centre is managed.

From the January 14 to February 14, villagers were asked for an opinion on a proposal that would allow trustees to take back control of managing the centre.

The centre is part of Guilsfield  primary school,  is owned by Powys County Council, and is leased to the community centre trustees.

But, wrangling over decisions made in the past, including questions over land ownership, saw the community centre face closure three years ago, before Guilsfield Community Council (GCC) stepped in to help out.

The issue is that community centre trustees were in limbo, and were waiting for the Charity Commission to provide information on the legal standing of who actually owns land, that was bought on behalf of the community centre.

Trust secretary, Malcolm Graham, said: “The outcome of the process was very encouraging as were the meetings with both the public and key interested groups.

“Those discussions helped to form our thoughts about how things need to move ahead in future.”

“The trustees have unanimously agreed to proceed with application to the Charity Commission to change  the necessary trust documents.”

He said that the application has been prepared and submitted.

Mr Graham added:  “We have to  devise a structure of management for all the indoor and outdoor facilities based on the two management committees, as outlined in the consultation.

“We are already doing preparation work in anticipation of success.”

Mr Graham added that they trustees would like to thank everyone in and around Guilsfield, as well as the users of the facilities, for engaging in and supporting the process.

The issues surrounding the community centre came to a head in November 2020, when Guilsfield Community Council vice-chairman, Cllr Glynne Turner, who has effectively been managing the centre since 2018, said that he would be stepping down from the role at the end of March 2021.

Trustees hope the process will be completed during the first half of 2021.