New Community Centre

The New Community Centre's advisory committee was established to research, prepare and make recommendations to the Parish Council to produce a new community centre for the benefit of Elmstead.

You can see the minutes of the NCC Committee meetings here.

The latest update on the New Community Centre and Environs was published in the May 2023 Upmarket and can be read below. 

Update from Elmstead Parish Council - April 2023

As many of you know, plans for a new community centre have been progressing for a number of years, beginning more than a decade ago with EMCHAT (Elmstead Market Community Hall Action Team), a community group constituted by dedicated residents to work towards the delivery of a new community centre. This came about after a structural survey of the current community centre identified issues with the building.

Additionally, there is no space to expand or improve the current centre, and car parking is a significant issue, often limiting what the centre can be used for. The lack of outdoors space has also been restrictive with potential hirers going elsewhere due to there being none available.

We must also recognise that with much of the building being well over a hundred years old, there is potential for maintenance costs to build up, and with rising costs of energy the current building is far from thermally efficient.

As such the goal is to construct a new community centre. The principle is to build a modern, efficient building that meets all the needs the existing centre does, with larger capacity and added versatility.

While the existing community centre has served the village admirably thanks to “The Community Centre” (a volunteer run charity), it is an ageing building that often does not meet the village’s needs as well as one would hope.

The new community centre (NCC) project is funded by contributions from a number of developments around the Parish in recent years and is to be located on the Charity Field site, immediately opposite the current community centre on School Road.

These funding contributions are triggered when the Church Road development reaches 20 occupied houses. It is currently in the mid-teens and hoped to trigger the funding in the coming months. This is significantly later than hoped, but construction delays stemming from the pandemic, and subsequent housing uncertainty have impacted the new community centre timeline. The current planning permission expires on the 24th August and so we will have to submit a new planning application.

This application will retain the current proposal of a larger, more versatile and modern community centre, but will possibly be updated from the planning permission acquired 3 years ago where necessary to get the best value for money giving current material costs, construction techniques, building regulations etc.

A 40+ space car park is integral to the project, while a large patio will extend the community centre’s space outdoors.

Once the funding point is triggered and the Parish Council gains ownership of the land, our immediate priority is to gain new planning permission and begin the community centre construction.

Once the construction of the community centre itself is finalised and under way we will finalise the plans for the remainder of the space. With groundworks and heavy machinery needed to build the community centre, install utilities and drainage etc, and a site office and construction compound it’s expected a large area surrounding the building itself will remain secured and off limits until the construction is complete.

Although no final decisions have been made our committee did research into options for facilities on the open space area  and a preliminary plan was suggested to include a large feature play park, with lots of different elements to appeal to a range of ages, a zip wire, outdoor gym equipment and a double or single MUGA ( multi use games area) that can be used for a range of sports such as tennis, netball and basketball.  We have also had suggestions for outdoor table tennis tables.

The outdoor space will also be funded by developer contributions, we have over £500k to spend on and maintain the open space and facilities.

We’re aware that football in particular has been the source of contention and misinformation so would like to make a few things clear:

The open space land will be owned by the Parish Council.

There is no fencing around the football area, it being part of the open publicly accessible field.

Floodlights were ruled out.

Initial plans included an adult sized football pitch. A risk consultation with an officer from TDC advised that the area was sufficient for a full sized adult pitch and run-off but erring on the side of caution the council agreed to limit the pitch to a youth sized pitch.

A children's pitch area, safely located in the centre of the field and being significantly smaller, allows for a large, open surrounding area without impeding on the other uses of the wider field.

No decisions have been made, nor will be made on the usage of the area by a children’s football club until nearer the time the community centre and its surroundings are complete. With it likely being at least 2 years before the community centre site is in full use such details are pointless to establish at this early stage as so many contributing factors may change.

It’s expected such an arrangement would lead to a team contributing financially in some way, so that the maintenance of the field is self-financing. The details of such an arrangement are to be researched and established at a future date, likely after the community centre is under construction.

The expectation is the area would be free for public use the majority of the time – creating a safe and designated area for kids wanting to have a kick around with friends.

Likewise, there is potential that some uses of the MUGA may incur a small cost, to be used towards the upkeep of the area. Again, details of potential options for how this might work will be discussed publicly at a later date. This is a decision still to be made after more research.

Otherwise, the entirety of the outdoor space will be publicly accessible and free to use.