Manager gives up the fight for centre
KEYS HANDED BACK AFTER BATTLE WITH COUNCIL
THE manager of a Nottingham community centre says he has “lost the fight” with the city council and has handed the keys to the building back to them.
Phil Merry, 40, has been trying to keep the Mapperley Community Centre going for just over a year after the city council reportedly threatened to evict his association, which had occupied the building since 1957.
The uncertainty caused by the alleged eviction threat, coupled with a looming increase in rent, meant Mr Merry took the decision that he could no longer keep the Woodborough Road centre going. Estimating that he will be hundreds of pounds out of pocket, the community centre manager handed the keys to the building back to Nottingham City Council last week.
Mr Merry said: “We handed the keys over on Tuesday. We managed to keep it going for just over a year, but we were having to find £8,000.”
The initial eviction threat was said to have been made at a meeting last February, though the city council then eventually said that eviction was “never an option”. Instead, Mr Merry said the council was keen to negotiate on the signing of a new lease which would have moved the Mapperley Community Association on to a commercial level of rent, set at £8,000 a year, compared to the previous peppercorn rent.
The offer came as the city council reviewed arrangements with several of the community groups occupying its buildings. Mr Merry tried to increase the rent he charged to those using the community centre but, coupled with the uncertainty caused by the eviction threat, many of his highest-paying users began to leave, with a nursery and a dementia day centre being among the organisations to have used it.
He said: “The rent increase never actually materialised, but it became harder after that bombshell was dropped on us in February.”
Mr Merry said one of the last groups to leave was a user who hired a space in the centre for dance classes, saying: “That just finished us off because by that point all we’d got was the snooker room. I just could not sustain it.”
Speaking about the latest situation with the Mapperley Community Centre, a Nottingham City Council spokesperson previously said: “When similar leases come up across the city, the starting point for renewal will now be a commercial market rate and where groups evidence worth to their local community, we can apply significant discounts to the annual rent. Like a number of venues across the country, usage numbers have tailed off at Mapperley Community Centre since the pandemic as lifestyles and priorities have changed.
“Fewer people are attending and the council would like to support the group to develop an enhanced local community offer moving forward.”
Mr Merry, who met his wife at the Mapperley Community Centre, added: “I’ve painted every wall in this place. I’ve lost the fight and this has just really hit us hard because this has been a huge part of my life.”