The debt-ridden Lockswood Community Centre is set to be renamed and taken over by new management from June this year – but the eight people currently employed there could find their jobs at risk.
Fareham Borough Council, which has been financially supporting the centre for the past six months while seeking new management, will continue to manage the centre for another three months, if approval for the changes is confirmed at a meeting on Monday (March 4).
Then from June the council intends to hand control of the centre over to the Lockswood Community and Sports Association – a newly formed trust with a charitable incorporated organisation status.
The facility would be renamed the Lockswood Community and Sports Centre.
A report has suggested the new-form centre would save £13,740 per annum, because it would not be paying National Non Domestic Rates and its internal recharges would drop by about £10,000.
The report added that the current staffing structure inherited by Fareham council when it took over the management of the centre from Hampshire County Council was “not economically viable”.
“It would be necessary to undertake a restructure of the current staffing arrangements and reduce the number of staff employed in order to achieve a sustainable operation,” the report states.
“The staff and their union representative have been informed of the need to reduce the service and are currently being consulted.”
In October it was decided the council would continue to manage the centre which was losing around £56,000 per year.
Since then, the one remaining functioning boiler failed and was irreparable, so was replaced in November with new boilers costing £20,000 to ensure there was an ongoing heat and water provision for its users.
That meant the centres debt had risen to £76,500 for this financial year.
The Lockswood Community and Sports Association has been made up of six trustees that have prepared and signed a constitution and are in process of creating a business plan for the future operation of the facility. The plan will be presented to the council’s executive in May, ahead of the management take-over in June.
A Fareham Borough Council appointed trustee will sit on the charity-managed committee.