Community leaders across Nottingham face being left with tens of thousands of pounds in repair bills as the city council considers slashing all grants to community centres.
The Labour-run council is proposing to cut grant money given to community centres by £613,000.
It is just one of a raft of savings proposed by the council as it looks to become more financially sustainable.
A protest against continued cuts to services, including plans to reduce spending on libraries by £1.5 million, was held outside Loxley House before a Communities and Environment Scrutiny Committee meeting on Wednesday (4 December).
Some demonstrators were trustees of community groups, including Louise Holland, from the Sherwood Community Centre on Mansfield Road.
The centre is run by the Sherwood Community Association, which welcomes more than 900 people to the centre each week.
• Nottingham community centres face uncertain future as council reviews funding model
She fears the proposals would burden the group with repair bills of more than £100,000.
Louise said: “We have been told by the council all community centres will have to become completely self-supporting, that we will lose the support of the communities team, and will have to pay for all repairs from April 2025,” she said.
“Whilst we appreciate Nottingham City Council has financial difficulties, we feel this plan is very short-sighted.”
The meeting was attended by a large number of members of the public and campaigners, as councillors discussed plans for libraries and community centres.
Discussions were repeatedly interrupted throughout the meeting, as members of the public sought to voice their displeasure over the proposals.
Colin Wilderspin, strategic director of communities at the council, said the authority could no longer support the 35 community centres across the city with a subsidy due to its financial difficulties.
He said the council had tried its hardest to reduce the impact and had already managed to avoid the total closure of all centres.
“Nobody wants to make these decisions, but we have to look at that affordability,” he said.
“There is no statutory duty for us to have community centres. We cannot continue to do it the same way because we do not have that money.”
Cllr Devontay Okure (Lab), who represents St Ann’s ward, questioned council officers on whether they had conducted a risk assessment on the longer-term costs of reduced community support.
“There’s a knock-on effect in subsidy removal where some community groups may not be able to afford it, which would lead to a massive deficit in community services that have been facilitated by these fantastic pillars of our community,” he said.
“They are the unsung heroes of our city.”
Mr Wilderspin said the council would encourage groups that could not afford to run the centres to submit business plans, through which they could provide evidence of the social value of their work and potentially decrease rents from market rates.
He added the council would also be running workshops to help groups create business cases.
Finalised plans will be presented in the new year.
