Brighter outlook for Kingsclere centre

Kingsclere's Fieldgate centre awarded peppercorn rent to ease difficulties

THE future of a Kingsclere sports and social centre, previously threatened with closure owing to lack of finances, is looking rosier after it was granted a peppercorn rent.

The Fieldgate Centre, Fieldgate Drive, which is run by Kingsclere Community Association and owned by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has been granted the minimal rent

by the council.

This will save it £4,000 a year, according to association

chairman Alan Hambidge.

Mr Hambidge has confirmed that he recently received a letter from the borough council stating that it was granting the peppercorn rent to the association, which leases the centre, and backdating it to June 1 this year.

Mr Hambidge said: “It means a lot to us.”

He added that the letter confirming the low rent had been

very encouraging.

In the letter, the borough council's community development

and learning manager, June Balcombe, said that she was “looking forward to seeing the centre develop as a heart of

activity in Kingsclere in the future”.

Mr Hambidge said that a new lease for the centre, which was

built in 1991 at a cost of £1.65m, would to be drawn up shortly, showing the amount of rent to be paid, which was likely to be virtually nothing.

The association has been fighting for lower rent since 2008, when it paid £10,000 for the year 2007-08 to the borough council, which the council subsidised by £7,500.

This was also the year that the association submitted detailed business plans and copies of annual reports, in line with Charity Commission guidance, together with details of maintenance contracts, to the borough council to demonstrate how the community would benefit from the award, in line with Audit Commission directives.

In September that year, the association hosted a public meeting at the centre, when it announced that closure and

“handing back the keys” to the borough council was one option under consideration, after it was revealed that a loss of £5,000 had been recorded for the financial year ending March 2008.

This was attributed to rising fuel costs and low bar takings.

In 2009, however, the then treasurer Ray Peach said that the centre was no longer running at a loss and finances were back in the black following an increase in bookings and efficiency measures.

Mr Hambidge thanked the association's committee members,

including the current treasurer, Mike Farey, for their dedication and efforts to secure the continued future of the centre, and officers at the borough council, including Mrs Balcombe and Lucy Mackmin, for their excellent help in obtaining the peppercorn rent.

Meanwhile, a fundraising event for the Help for Heroes charity is to

be held at the Fieldgate Centre, Kingsclere, at the end

of August.

The event, which promises lots of fun, will feature a cake store, bouncy castle, face painting, a fire engine and a treasure hunt.

Also on offer will be an egg and- spoon race, pull rope game, and sumo suits, displays by the army cadets, and games by the village cricket and football teams.

Refeshments will include a barbecue and hog roast, with

evening entertainment.

The fundraiser will start at 10am on Sunday, August 28.