Express & Star

30 workers facing axe in Dudley centre closure

A 'lifeblood' community centre is to close after more than 25 years – with 30 staff set to lose their jobs.

Published

Bosses at the St Thomas's Community Network in Kates Hill – which includes an on-site nursery and youth club – say a lack of funding has forced their hand.

A campaign group has been set up on Facebook to try to save the much-loved centre located in Beechwood Road. It is due to close on September 30.

The Mayor of Dudley, Councillor Steve Waltho, who is chairman of the board of trustees at the network, said: "The centre is a stand-alone charity and although we have received a grant from the council in the past that finished in 2010, it was cut. From then really we have been struggling. We have been fighting and scrambling around for the last two years but it has now become unviable.

"The centre literally benefits hundreds of people and that is just the adult learning courses that we do. All that will stop.

"Dudley Council is being very supportive and we are working with them to see what services and jobs can be salvaged."

The grant from the council had been £80,000 each year. The network was set up 26 years ago to link people together in that area of Dudley.

It provides training in English, ICT and computer art and employs a total of 30 full and part-time staff. A second-hand furniture store also operates from the site. Its halls, two of which were refurbished last year, can also be hired for parties and conferences.

Louis Treasure was raised in nearby Birmingham Road and used the centre in the 1990s. He has set up the Facebook group campaigning to save it.

Loss

He said: "It is such a shame it has come to this. I want to try and do this to repay the support they gave me when I was younger.

"It would be such a loss if it were to go under. The response I have had since setting up the group has been good. This is not just about the current users but about the kids of the future."

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