Ex-school site ‘opportunity’
Apr 22 2008 by Ben Guy, The Journal
THE future of a former school and playing field in a Northumberland town will be discussed at a council meeting.
Eastwoods Middle School in Prudhoe was closed in 2005 because of falling pupils numbers, and since then the building has been used only intermittently by community groups.
Northumberland County Council owns the building, but Tynedale District Council will this week discuss how the premises can be best used to serve the community. Prudhoe Youth Club Football Club have been given a short term licence to use the playing fields attached to the school, and the club has also commissioned consultants to consider the feasibility of the club taking over all or part of the site.
Andy Dean, director of regeneration and communities at the district council, said the building provided an “obvious opportunity” to introduce facilities identified by the Prudhoe North community planning exercise.
He said: “Following initial discussions with a number of key partners it was agreed that the consultants should canvass key stakeholders regarding their views on the future of the building, to be in a position to activate proposals should the county council agree to release the building.
“Over 20 stakeholder groups have now been consulted and key conclusions reached by the consultants.”
Among those key conclusions are that demand for a community activity meeting place in the area is high and is not currently being met, and that there is demand for space for theatre, dance and film facilities. Mr Dean also said there were indications that local people were interested in becoming involved in the staffing of the project.
He said: “Funding has been made available from Social Enterprise Northumberland to enable a public consultation exercise to be held with residents of the West Wylam area and a stakeholder workshop to discuss the way forward.” Mr Dean added that he hoped a business plan could be drawn up by the time the county council made a decision on the school.
A Northumberland County Council spokesman said: “The community already has use of the changing rooms and playing fields at the school and there may be the potential to extend this use in the future. However, the council is considering alternative uses for the building and is not able to give any firm commitment at the present time.”
