£500k Tadley youth centre building moves a step closer

At the full Tadley Town Council meeting, councillors voted unanimously in favour of taking out a public works loan of £250,000 towards the project.
However, the loan application can only be made if a ballot of the town’s taxpayers proves that a majority are in favour of taking out the loan.
Likely to take place early in the new year, councillors agreed by a show of hands that the ballot should be carried out by the Electoral Reform Society.
In August, the town council also approved £50,000 expenditure towards the initial costs of getting the youth centre off the ground. It is planned to be built on part of the former Burnham Copse Infant School site, New Church Road, at the rear of Tadley and District Community Centre. The land was given to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council by Hampshire County Council, and will be leased by Tadley and District Community Association, which runs the community centre.
The vice-chairwoman of the town council, Avril Burdett (ind, Tadley North) said that the aim was to have the new facility up and running by early 2015.
The loan would be taken out over 15 years and would be billed at an estimated £2.15 per year to the average Tadley household (in a band D council tax property).
Stressing that this was a yearly amount, town councillor John Moss (ind, Tadley East) said: “It’s less than the cost of a packet of fags.”
Nigel Quelch (ind,Tadley South), said that he surveyed 300 Tadley residents to gauge reaction to the idea of a loan to raise funds for a new youth centre and only got one negative response.
At a meeting of the Turbary Allotment Charity, held immediately after the town council meeting, trustees approved by a majority vote a further £250,000 from the coffers of the charity towards the cost of the youth centre.
The charity, of which the town council is the corporate trustee, provides grants to organisations or individuals in the Tadley area in need, hardship, or distress.
After the meeting, the clerk to the charity’s trustees, Nicki Barry, said that, as at September 30, the charity had total investments of £1,097,467, of which approximately £614,492 was permanent endowment.