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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Travel
John Baron

Woodhouse nets £400,000 boost - but Royal Park campaigners made to wait

royal park leeds
Royal Park Primary School building in Hyde Park, which residents want to use as a community resource Photograph: John Baron/guardian.co.uk

Residents in Woodhouse will soon be able to enjoy a refurbished neighbourhood hub through improvements being made to the Woodhouse Community Centre.

The local community will benefit from £400,000 from the Communitybuilders fund towards the regeneration of the centre.

But a £750,000 bid from the Royal Park Community Consortium to transform the derelict Royal Park Primary School in nearby Hyde Park is still being considered by the fund.

A spokeswoman for Communitybuilders told Guardian Leeds that the application to turn the old school into a community hub was 'still being processed' and that different bids took different amounts of time to take a decision over.

She said she couldn't indicate when the fund would reach a decision. Consortium members went down to London to present their case more than a fortnight ago.

The Communitybuilders fund is being ended by the government at the end of March.

Members of the consortium last month got the go-ahead to take control of the building from Leeds council - provided they raised £750,000 within nine months.

Woodhouse Community Centre

Oblong is a local community organisation which took over the lease of Woodhouse Community Centre from Leeds council in January.

Oblong's plans include a staffed reception area, a simple clear booking process, access for disabled users and introducing a second mezzanine floor to increase space.

This is the first stage in a longer term plan to redevelop the Woodhouse area. Further plans include the development of a rockery area for children's play, increasing the size of sports areas and improving lighting in the area. Some project works have already been finished, such as the permaculture mini park on Pennington Street which has introduced fruit trees to the area.

Councillor Penny Ewens (Lib Dem, Hyde Park & Woodhouse) said:

"The local community will benefit hugely from this redevelopment of Woodhouse. The project money will go towards increasing facilities for all in the form of Woodhouse Community Centre.

"The fact that Oblong are led by local volunteers makes this a really exciting project for the community to be involved in. I hope that this redevelopment continues in the same vein as earlier development to give Woodhouse the fantastic facilities it deserves and to serve the local community the best it can."

What do you think? Have your say in the comments section below.

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