News

GREEN LIGHT FOR NEW COMMUNITY CENTRE IN FINCH

By Victoria Corbett
July 19, 2006

A MULTI-million pound community centre will be built in Finchampstead despite opposition from the social club it will replace.
The state-of-the-art centre, a joint venture between Finchampstead Baptist Church and Wokingham District Council, will be built in place of the Rides Community Centre in the Gorse Ride estate.
The new centre will have a library, improved sports facilities and a multi-agency children’s centre.
But it will not have a bar – which outraged the Rides Community Association, which operates one in the current centre.
The building is owned by the district council and has been leased to the parish council.
For 25 years the Rides Community Centre has run the Rides Sport and Social Club in the centre and operated the bar.
But at a meeting of Finchampstead Parish Council on Thursday, members voted to surrender the lease on the
centre, subject to the Baptist Church’s plans going ahead.
Cllr Roland Cundy, chairman of the parish council, said: “Gorse Ride is an area that has been deprived of money and community.
“This is a very good opportunity for us to see something really nice happen in that area, because for years we have been struggling to get some resources there.”

See The Wokingham Times 19/07/06 for full story.