Plans for Sowerby Bridge youth centre to be run by the community move forward

Earlier this year, Calderdale Council’s Cabinet said the Foundry Street Youth and Community Centre in the town would be available to be run by a volunteer or community group rather than close it.

For a while now the council has said it has to close or sell some buildings across the district to raise money or save costs in order to balance its books each year.

Cabinet has now been told a group has expressed interest in taking on the building, which ward councillors have said has been an important meeting place for people in the town.

Councillor Silvia Dacre (Lab, Todmorden) said an expression of interest had been received and the subsequent report was very complementary about the bid.

The interested group had looked at other organisations which were in the process of completing community asset transfers to learn from them and had gone out to the relevant professionals, obtaining reports on what was needed to run the centre successfully.

“It’s a very thorough submission for this stage of the process,” she said.

Cabinet agreed to process should now proceed to full business case stage.

The group will now work with council officers to take their bid to that stage from the expression of interest stage.

Senior officers and a Cabinet member will then rule on whether the proposal is considered to be a sound one on which the transfer could then be completed.