Hire cost hike at Thatcham nature centre

Community groups say they cannot afford to use the Nature Discovery Centre any more

THE cost of hiring the Nature Discovery Centre, Thatcham, has gone up, taking it out of the price-range of some community groups.

As part of West Berkshire Council's budget cuts, the cost for both commercial and non-profit organisations to hire the Muddy Lane centre for half days, full days and evenings has increased.

For non-profit organisations half-a-day hire and evening hire will now be £75 each, compared to £65 last year, and a full day will be £120, compared to £105 last year.

Steve Harris, from the Newbury Astronomical Society, said that it used to use the Nature Discovery Centre for meetings but now holds them at St Mary's Church, Greenham, instead, which costs the group just £25 per evening.

He said that it would now be too expensive for them to return to the Nature Discovery Centre, even if they wanted to.

“I don't think we would be able to afford that,” said Mr Harris.

“We would be hard-pressed to look at the centre at that price and we would certainly have to charge our members extra.”

The Alzheimer's Society West Berkshire also used to use the centre for group meetings.

Support and development worker Chreanne Montgomery-Smith said that it would be great to start a group at the centre again, however price increases for hiring venues was something of which they had to be wary.

Mrs Montgomery-Smith added that she was concerned that an increase in charges would mean fewer organisations would use the centre.

“It's not going to make things more active for them [the centre],” she said.

District councillor David Rendel (Thatcham North, Lib Dem) said that if the centre was too expensive for users it would be counter productive as fewer people would use it, meaning less money would be made.

He said: “It seems like it is a decision that will come back to bite them [the Conservative administration].”

West Berkshire Council spokeswoman Peta Stoddart-Crompton said: “The centre makes every effort to keep the facilities affordable and hasn't raised its rates for some time.

However, the occasional increase is unavoidable as all businesses are under financial pressure.

“The rates for not-for-profit organisations are substantially less than for commercial businesses.

The centre is still excellent value and the rates are extremely competitive alongside those of similar venues in the area.”

The district council has been looking at ways to make the centre more profitable in the past few months.

Plans to introduce a £1 car parking charge were scrapped last summer, after a Facebook campaign gathered almost 2,000 signatures from people calling for it to remain free, but the council warned at the time that other ways of generating revenue would have to be looked at.