A new Community Centre

Carolyn Dutton, former administrator of the Community Centre, and Father Michael Wright, look at plans for the redevelopment. Photo: Ian Watkins

The current Jericho Community Centre, the former St. Barnabas Institue, is owned by the Church and leased to the City Council. They in turn lease it to the Jericho Community Association.

While the building has provided a valuable community focus it is showing its age and is no longer appropriate for modern needs. In particular it does not fulfil the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. As a result, the Church Trustees are unlikely to renew the lease. Father Michael Wright, the Vicar of St. Barnabas, says that the Church Trustees would be willing to use proceeds of a sale or a redevelopment to help build a new Community Centre.

The redevelopment of the land behind the Church offers a wonderful opportunity to carry this out. And the City Council is also keen to see a new Centre and will contibute the land currently occupied by the garages in Dawson Place to allow for the construction of a new Centre somewhere on the site.

You will find a series of article on the twists and turns in this story in various issues of the Jericho Echo.