PARK STREET SCHOOL

As someone who has sought election to both the Westminster Parliament and the National Assembly I came across all sorts of campaigns and groups seeking my support. There are plenty of worthwhile campaigns in Monmouth constituency, one which I hope succeeds is the campaign to create a community centre on the site of the former Park Street School in Abergavenny. The campaign to create a Community Centre on the site of the former Park Street School in Abergavenny has received a boost as Abergavenny Town Council has agreed to write a letter in support of the scheme to turn the site of Park Street School into a community centre. Abergavenny Community Centre Limited (ACC) was formed by residents after the closure of the school some six years ago in an effort to secure the site as a community centre and a place to hold activities such as a children's day nursery, drop-in cafe, luncheon club for pensioners, music and cultural exchange, room hire, tutoring for pupils and as an arts centre. The former site, which has outline planning permission for the scheme, was set to be sold by auction by Monmouthshire council for between £300,000 and £350,000, with the cash from the sale going into the council’s education budget. This plan was thankfully pulled before the auction took place to give ACC time to raise the necessary funds to develop the Community Centre. If successful in it's objective this campaign will make a real and lasting postive contribution to the people of Abergavenny.

PARK STREET SCHOOL – A REAL OPPORTUNITY

The news that Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) plans to sell Park Street School by auction to the highest bidder for new housing is to put it politely disappointingly short sighted. The current locally developed proposals to redevelop Park Street School as a community centre are an excellent example of a community focused project that actually aims to benefit local people and the community, but, of course people are beginning to suspect that MCC don’t actually believe in the concept of the community – merely the opportunity to line their own ill managed coffers.

MCC needs to actively work with (rather than against) community groups to explore ways of tapping potential funding streams like the newly launched Community Assets Transfer Programme (November 4th 2009) so that Park Street School can provide long term benefits to the community rather than short term financial gain to MCC and any developers. There is a real opportunity to transform the former School into a Community Centre, which could provide real opportunities for local people and community groups and make a real contribution to the community with a day nursery, the provision of holiday play schemes and clubs.