The future of Knighton’s Community Centre has been plunged into doubt following the resignation of its chairman and a committee which is “in complete disarray”.
An emergency meeting between Knighton Town Council and the centre’s committee was held on Monday to try and find a way to save the biggest community centre in Powys for the town. There is concern the centre could close without more support.
The town council will hold a closed meeting next Monday to discuss the situation and an Extraordinary General Meeting of the community centre committee will take place on November 10, to elect a new committee to try and save the centre.
Deputy Mayor Councillor Roger Bright, who chaired the emergency meeting, said: “We are very concerned about the situation. This is a facility we do not want to lose for the town. We had a joint meeting between the town council and the community centre committee where everybody put everything on the table.
“I proposed, and it was accepted, that this is of such importance that the town Mayor, Councillor Peter Reynolds, should chair the extraordinary annual meeting and we urge all the organisations that use the community centre to come along and support it to make sure that we do not lose the centre.”
Tom Taylor, the vice-chairman of the community centre committee, said: “Roger Cross was the chairman and he resigned at the beginning of October.
“We had a meeting recently to discuss rents and hire charges for the centre and I assumed the role of chairman, but then I was told I could not do it because I have a financial interest in the centre.
“So in effect we do not have a chairman or vice-chairman so the whole committee is invalid and in complete disarray. I said the only way forward was to have an Extraordinary General Meeting to elect a new committee.
“Normally we have it in May or June and we only get 15 or 16 people turn up and the committee is mostly returned and we go nowhere.
“We need people to come to this meeting on November 10 and stand for election to bring new blood to the committee.
“This is the biggest community hall in Powys and we believe it should be an asset for the town. It could be a major focal point for the town.”
Mr Taylor said they had organised two events recently – The Jenny Miller Band and the Hereford Big Band – both of which had to be cancelled because they only sold one ticket for the Hereford band gig.
“We have paid them for staying at home really,” he said. “It’s a shame. Lots of people say that’s the way it goes, that people do not want to go out nowadays, but a few years ago those events would have attracted a healthy audience. We lost about £1,000 on this because we had to pay the artists and for printing tickets and posters.”
He said the committee had also made proposals to increase the hire charges for the main hall by more than 67 per cent due to cash shortages and increases in the cost of heating and lighting.
Mr Taylor said that for community groups, such as the badminton group or Teme Spirits which only pay a nominal fee, it will mean an increase from about £15 to £25.
The committee is made up of about ten members including a chairman, a vice-chairman, secretary and treasurer, members from groups which use the centre, and representatives from the local town and county council.
