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ITEM EX14

EXECUTIVE - 5 MARCH 2002

WOODCOTE COMMUNITY AND YOUTH CENTRE

Report by the Director of Environmental Services

Background

1. The Woodcote Community and Youth Centre occupies most of a former school house on the Langtree School site. It is many years since the property was used as a school house and until the early 1990's it was used for storage by the school. It was in very poor condition and had not been properly maintained. In 1990 the local community proposed to refurbish the building so that it could be used for community purposes. They raised something over £20,000 of funds locally and arranged for the refurbishment work to be done, much of it with volunteer labour and materials including a new boiler provided by a supplier at nil cost. Since 1993 the building has been successfully run for community purposes and it is now managed by the Woodcote Community and Youth Centre which is a management sub-committee of the Woodcote Community Education Management Committee. Two rooms are used by the County Council's Lifelong Learning staff. Other uses include the Woodcote Appraisal Committee, Woodcote Parochial Church Council, Woodcote Conservation Group, the Wokingham and South Oxfordshire Learning Disabilities Day Service, the Citizens' Advice Bureau, and occasionally by the school. The terrapin building to the rear is used as a Youth Centre which is managed and staffed by Woodcote Community and Youth Centre. That building is in poor condition and obsolete and there is a proposal that a new Youth Centre will be provided by refurbishing part of the Village Hall.

Lease

2. There is no lease or other formal agreement for the use of the building by Woodcote Community and Youth Centre nor for the reserved use of rooms by Lifelong Learning. It would be in the interest of both parties for a lease to be granted and terms have been provisionally agreed for a lease to be granted for a term of ten years. Discounting the value of the works carried out by the local community to refurbish the building over the period since 1993 it is proposed that a rent of £2,500 per year should be become payable from September 2002. However, the Committee is not in a position to pay that level of rent. The Centre operates at a loss which is made up by funding from the Parish Council.
3. The Council's normal policy is that all lettings of Council Property to third parties, including voluntary groups, should be at a full market rent with any support given by way of a grant. In this case the County Council has the benefit of the use of two rooms by Lifelong Learning and there are other uses in the building which the County Council could reasonably support. The Committee provides and runs a Youth Centre with some support from the County Council and intends to provide a new Youth Centre building subject to grant funding.

4. The Community Centre building is very well maintained and looked after and provides useful services. It potentially has long term value to the County Council but should not be disposed of at present as it is within the school grounds. It is therefore proposed that a lease be granted to the Community and Youth Centre at a rent of £2,500 per year effective from 1^st September 2002 but that the Council gives a grant of £2,400 per year in recognition of the community services provided including the Youth Centre and the rooms used by Lifelong Learning. The rent actually paid will therefore be £100 per year. There will be no net additional cost to the County Council arising from the payment of the grant as no rent is currently received for the premises. The grant will continue for the ten year period of the lease.

  RECOMMENDATION

4. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to agree that a lease of the Woodcote Community and Youth Centre building be granted to the trustees of the Woodcote Community and Youth Centre and that a grant be paid them for the duration of the lease equal to the annual rent less £100.

DAVID YOUNG
Director of Environmental Services

Background papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Neil Monaghan, Property Client Section, Tel: Oxford 815712

6 February 2002

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