A community group have been told they will have to foot a bill of almost £90,000 a year to stay in the rooms they occupy following a shake-up to save West Lothian £1m.
Bathgate Community Centre Management Committee has rejected proposals to lease space in the town ‘s Partnership because its income is only £15,000 a year.
The committee has to submit proposals for January, but there is no certainty what will happen if agreement cannot be reached by April 2026 – the deadline for the council to reach its budget savings by cutting community centre spending.
Across the county volunteer management committees are facing a choice of buying buildings outright or entering new lease agreements with the council.
Around 30 townspeople attended an online meeting on Monday night to hear that the annual bill to cover building and running costs for the 23 per cent of the Bathgate Partnership building the council says the community centre occupies could be as much as £86,853.
This includes a 10 per cent share of staffing costs – equal to around £40,000 per year – for two members of staff. The committee is the latest in West Lothian to flatly reject the council’s ‘take it or leave it’ approach to the future of community centres and village halls, where volunteer management committees are either being asked to take out a lease on the buildings they occupy or buy them outright through community asset transfer.
The management team said: “We would be open to making an annual financial contribution to the council, the amount would depend on our yearly income and our commitment to providing affordable space for volunteer groups, charities, and residents.”
Community council treasurer Donald Stavert, chairing the meeting, said that council finance officers saw community centres as “low-hanging fruit”.
He added: “This is a service which is non-statutory, the council does not legally have to provide it, which is astonishing. Centres have been here for decades. I think they saw this as an easy cut but the reality is when they come and talk to the community it is a completely different matter. We’re looking for a major rethink here.”
The committee has suggested that some form of community interest company or charitable trust take on the management of community centres.
At the very least the committee has called on the council to drop the idea of cutting funding by 100 per cent in one go, suggesting gradually cutting back funding to help a community based operator gradually take control.
The management committee said a social enterprise co-operative or charity taking ownership could work with the council adding: “This collaborative approach could lead to more effective management of these vital community assets while relieving individual management committees of unsuitable financial burdens. The council could then gradually reduce its budget contribution to the new organisation over a number of years.”
Bathgate’s community centre occupies rooms in the Jim Walker Partnership, the council Partnership building in South Bridge Street.
The council proposes the centre pays a lease share towards the running costs and staff of the building. Those at the meeting overwhelmingly backed the management committee proposals.
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