Hanwell Community Centre regeneration
With local councillors Colm Costello and Rosa Popham discussing plans about Hanwell Community Centre
A visitor from outer space who was sad enough to come to last night’s cabinet meeting in Ealing could have thought that we were planning to do something horrible to the Hanwell Community Centre. In fact we are investing £2 million to restore this Grade II listed building, not that Labour leader Cllr Bell could even grudgingly welcome this investment.
Hanwell Community Centre is a much loved building that is much more than a former home to Charlie Chaplin (which is all that ever seems to get mentioned about it). It has been allowed to fall into disrepair over many years. The former Labour administration did moot plans to demolish chunks of it and turn large parts over to housing, but we’ve decided to invest in the building and support its enthusiastic management committee.
The problem that we face is that the building is in a very poor state of repair, with asbestos and other nasties lurking around the building. There is a chance that we may need to close the building for 10 months while the essential repairs take place. It may be possible to do the repairs on a rolling basis, keeping parts of the building open, while work continues elsewhere. This may seem an ideal compromise but it could mean the works dragging on for years, significantly increasing the costs and meaning that other works can’t take place (the £2 million is the budget therefore if the essential repair costs increases other works will have to be sacrificed).
The management committee would like to keep the Community Centre open so that its users can carry on with minimal disruption. There is also the risk that if users find other premises they may not come back, even to a newly refurbished Centre.
We will be taking a decision later in the year on how to progress when we have more information to hand. In the meantime I think we should be welcoming this investment in the future of Hanwell Community Centre and working together to overcome the challenges faced.
Tags: Hanwell Community Centre, Julian Bell, Regeneration
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