The Chairman's Report: 2010 - 2011

Alan Knight
Chairman
PSDCC Management Committee

The Community Centre continues to provide a valuable resource to the residents of Praa Sands and the surrounding area and this is largely due to the sterling efforts of the volunteer Management Committee which, though depleted in number, continues to fulfil its role in:

• delivering the objectives identified in the Centre’s Development Plan
• managing the Centre in a professional and appropriate manner.

In addition, as can be seen from the audited accounts, the Centre remains on a reasonably sound financial footing despite significant expenditure on building repairs and other changes to the Centre.

The Centre continues to be used by a wide spectrum of Groups ranging from theatre and music evenings, gardening, art and short mat bowls to aerobics, healing, music appreciation, the Lunch Club and a variety of miscellaneous activities. We are pleased to see increasing use of the Centre thanks to new users such as the Zumba group, stained and fused glass classes and the monthly Sunday Vintage Fayre events.

During the year the Centre has continued to show signs of its age and we have had several instances of roof leaks which led to problems with lighting and minor structural damage. Whereas the repairs have been effective and the building is currently watertight, we know that the lead covering on the north side of the roof has deteriorated, especially in the box gutter, and an estimate for a permanent repair has been obtained and, as this is quite substantial at around £7,500, the Management Committee is investigating funding sources to enable this repair to be carried out.

The planned refurbishment to the Centre has temporarily been suspended as a result of the serious doubts which have been raised about the structural soundness of the Centre as indicated in the previous paragraph and by other emerging problems. We hope to resurrect the development programme, suitably enhanced and updated in the coming year.

Despite many efforts, it has not been possible to appoint a Secretary as no candidates have been forthcoming. Meetings have been minuted on an ad hoc basis throughout the year and other Secretarial duties have been shared out between various committee members. Again, despite many efforts, only two new Committee members have been recruited and are still serving, several other potential members have not remained on the Committee. This lack of resources has meant that the Committee Roles Definition document that I produced last yea has not been implemented and we continue to stagger along, unable to implement the developments that we would very much like to bring to fruition. If the committee remains as it is, not only will it not be possible to introduce the new projects, it will, as stated in my last Annual Report, also no longer be possible to run the Community Centre at all thus necessitating its affairs being taken over by the Parish Councils of Breage and Germoe as Custodian Trustees. This would effectively mean the closure of the Centre, even if only temporarily. It would be most helpful if all the regular Centre User Groups exercised their right (if not responsibility) to have up to two representatives on the Management Committee. Should this happy situation arise, the Committee would have substantially increased resources and communication between the Committee and the Users would be considerably enhanced.

Following with the retirement of our long suffering Caretaker, the new approach to access control and cleaning has worked very well and has proved to be effective and economical.

Despite the hiring rate increases introduced last year, a combination of inflation and fabric repairs have led the Committee to consider a further small rise and this matter is an Agenda item at this AGM.

In short the Centre continues to flourish thanks to the support of the many User Groups and organisations that use the facilities and also those people who participate in the ‘200 Club’ and attend shows and other cultural events.

Finally, let me reiterate that, unless we acquire at least four new committee members in the near future, it is likely that the Centre will have to close its doors. On a lighter note, I should like to thank the existing Committee Members for their hard work over the past year, without your efforts there would be no Community Centre.