THINGS are looking up for Alton Community Centre with more money allocated by East Hampshire District Council towards annual running costs and news that the architects have been formally appointed to draw up plans for a new community building in the town. Following last Wednesday's EHDC cabinet meeting, deputy leader Sam James has confirmed that Alton-based architects Format Milton have been given the go ahead to prepare a detailed scheme for a new community building with flats above. According to Mr James, while the original plan had been to construct a new building in the Bank car park and sell off the existing community centre for development, Environment Agency requirements over building on flood plains had rendered this plan unviable. It is understood that, because it spans the River Wey, if the existing building was to be demolished with a view to redevelopment, half the site would be lost because it would be deemed too close to the river bank. As a result EHDC has come up with an alternative solution which will be to flatten the existing building and open up the car park site to make way for a completely different new build project. Using a revised configuration which would assuage Environment Agency fears over potential flooding, the building will provide a home for current community centre activities alongside Alton CAB, EHDC presence office and Tourist Information Centre facilities. It will also open up the opportunity for housing association involvement with flats above. Sam James confirmed that consultation would continue with local stakeholders, and that detailed drawings would be shown to the public as soon as they were available. Community centre manager Richard Swainston was delighted, after a year of delay due to Environment Agency intervention, to see the go- ahead given to proceed. He also expressed delight at EHDC's decision to award the centre a one-off payment of £6,000 in addition to the £8,440 (plus inflation) ACA will receive as core funding for 2007/08. The increase will bring the funding more in line with other community associations in the area which get proportionally more than Alton. Because Alton was going through a hard time prior to the 2003 review, there was concern that it may not survive. But the centre is now well on the road to recovery and Mr Swainston has argued that rather than reducing the amount allocated Alton should be getting more to redress the current imbalance. "Our running costs are a lot higher and yet we have been getting less than other centres which have a much lower income/expenditure level. Even with an additional £6k, it is still only five per cent of our income/expenditure," said Mr Swainston. He pointed out that Alton Community Association, responsible for running the centre, was now in a much stronger position and would make good use of the money to support and develop projects and assist in the day-to-day running and security costs. EHDC's cabinet heard that since the 2003 review, ACA had restructured its staff and management and developed a range of new activities and initiatives. The turnover had increased by 30 per cent to £208,874 for 03/ 04 and by 31 per cent to £274,315 for 04/05. Current funding from EHDC was just over three per cent of turnover and the additional £6,000 was expected to push it up to five per cent. By contrast, Horndean Community Association received an annual grant of £19,950, representing 14 per cent of its income/ expenditure and Whitehill and Bordon received £18,000 representing 23 per cent of income and 20 per cent of its expenditure. The debate drew some heated exchanges with portfolio holder for finance Ferris Cowper (Grayshott) asking whether ACA was in a sound enough position to merit additional funding. Tony Ludlow (Alton) leapt to his town's defence, backed by chairman Andrew Pattie (Petersfield) who pointed out that the organisation had improved beyond recognition over the past two years and now had "an excellent management team" confident enough to take risks, one of which was to take over the Petersfield Community Learning project. "These are risks that have come off," said Mr Pattie. "This is now an effective, aggressive, forceful team." Elizabeth Cartwright (Liss) confirmed that while leader of the council, she had experienced a great deal of problems with ACA but things had changed. She added: "I can understand Mr Ludlow being loyal and spirited, but they have turned a corner and now are a very successful organisation."
