I was informed earlier today by the Labour councillor for Leith Walk Ward, Angela Blacklock, that the ruling LibDem/SNP administration which runs Edinburgh City Council had rejected her motion asking for an investigation into the possibility of the Council buying the Calton Centre. The Centre has served as a community centre for the Calton/Hillside area for many years, but has recently been closed and put up for sale by the church group which owns it.
This is very bad news, and runs completely against the strong community feeling in the area that the centre should be saved as a community facility. A recent survey of the local community showed that 57% of those who responded felt that the reopening of the Calton Centre was "really important issue."
According to Angela, her motion was rejected because it was felt it would cost the council £500,000 to buy the centre. If that's so, then it seems to me that this is pretty good value for the money - surely this money could be found to save a community facility like this which serves an area of more than 10,000 local people.
In fact, I've noticed today on a property website that the selling agents for the property expect it will go for only £300,000 - see this link (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the information about the Calton Centre). Surely the council could find this type of money? What is also concerning is that according to the website the sale of the centre is now fairly well advanced - if the Council doesn't move quickly, it is clear the Calton Centre will be sold off. In fact, according to this property website, the closing date for 'offers' appears to be tomorrow (Wednesday 27 August) - but hopefully, in today's property market, there might still be an opportunity for the Council to make an approach to the existing or perhaps the new owners.
I am contacting the Council to urge them to reconsider their refusal even to think about purchasing the Calton Centre - I hope other local residents and residents' groups will do so as well.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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3 comments:
Hi Mark,
I lived in Abbeyhill (a stone's throw from Hillside) for 3 years and I still regularly visit friends and family in the area.
I haven't the foggiest what the Calton Centre is.
That, of course, doesn't necessarily mean it's not an important local centre but I find the 57% statistic very dubious indeed.
Re Jeffs comments.
The Calton Centre in Montgomery Street was a well used and popular centre for Community use prior to its closure.
I was involved in drafting, distributing and collating a suvey that was issued to 1200 local residents asking what they would like to see in the way of Community provision, leisure, education, community events, specific groups etc. We had 396 forms returned, 33%.
These forms were carefully scrutinized and we had help in analysing them and publishing the results from a local MP so I can assure you that the figure quoted by Mark is accurate and reflective of public feeling.
The overwhelming opinion was that people wanted to see a place that could be used as a base and focus for Community activity- if not the Calton centre, then somewhere similiar. This feeling has been echoed by further discussion at meetings and by speaking to people locally.
You can view the full results of this survey at www.spanglefish.com/EH7 CommunityNoticeboard.
Thanks for the response Fiona.
Maybe if you renamed it Lenzie Centre then you'd get another 28 years out of it....?
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Calton-28-years-later.4443447.jp
But seriously, good luck in your plan for buying the centre if buying it is indeed a worthwhile move.
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