All Saints Community Centre
16 September 2008
By Shontelle Williams
All Saints Community Centre, located on Monson Road, is a key community asset located within the NDC area.
All Saints Community Centre, located on Monson Road, is a key community asset located with-in the NDC area. The centre provides low-cost, accessible facilities available for use by the local community, for their benefit and is probably the most intensively used community facility in Lewisham. Currently, more than 25 different groups use the facilities as a Centre for their group activities. In addition, the Centre is used for wedding and other private hire receptions.
The Centre is run under the guidance of a Management Committee which seeks to accommodate social and community activities on a not-for-profit basis. The Centre is, however, now looking careworn and is lacking in modern facilities and appeal to potential users, it is therefore about to undergo a major refurbishment to upgrade and improve facilities. It the intension of all the stakeholders that the centre will continue to support existing local community groups, while increasing its appeal for wider community uses.
The NDC Board has approved to fund the £1.2 million improvement scheme. The scheme, which aims to address two complimentary aspects of the centre, namely the refurbishment works and long term sustainability, is now well advanced. As part of the improvement scheme, the NDC is working with the committee and Southwark Dioceses to build the capacity of the members and help support and improve the short, medium and long term management strategies for the centre, so that they can better manage the future use of the centre by the local community and private hire individuals/organisations.
The refurbishment will be managed and paid for by the local New Cross Gate New Deal for Communities (NDC), whom are working in partnership with the All Saints Centre Management Committee and Southwark Diocese and should be completed by summer 2009.
