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New Era for Pickering's Hungate Community Centre

Friday, 17 September 2021 07:56

By Matthew Pells

Pickering's Hungate Community centre will have new owners from today.

Scarborough Based Coast and Vale Community action will be taking over the custodianship of the centre after reaching an agreement with previous owner the RVS. They will be picking up the keys at lunchtime.

In a social media post this morning Mel Bonney from CaVCA said:

"One of the things I love best about my job is being able to support communities to take action over issues people identify as important to them and their community - and today is the culmination of a hard fought campaign by the people of Pickering when the Hungate Centre will be finally returned to community ownership under the custodianship of CaVCA.

I’ll be there at 12 to collect the keys from RVS and would be delighted if members of the community could be there to join us"

The community centre had been put up for sale by the Royal Voluntary Service.

It caused controversy in the town as the centre was originally built in the 1960s using public donations and then gifted to the RVS to operate in trust.

After the RVS announced it's intention to sell the building a local community group banded together to either try and raise the cash to buy the building for the town, or to persuade RVS to donate it to them.

The group put up a banner on the railings outside the Hungate Centre to draw attention to their online petition which attracted over 1,000 signatures. Members of the group also wrote to the RVS Board, some even writing to HM The Queen (RVS patron) and the Duchess of Cornwall (RVS President).

In March we reported how Coast and Vale Community Action had been holding talks with the RVS about taking over the trusteeship of the building.

CaVCA Chief Exec Mel Bonney explained how that would work

Speaking in March Mel said taking over the trusteeship of the building would involve CavCA making a payment to RVS to settle the "community debt" that they have accrued in running and maintaining the building. CaVCA say they will be running the centre for the benefit of the people of Pickering and not as a money making exercise.

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