CONCERNED residents have signed a petition to throw their community centre a lifeline.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (RBWM) plans to demolish the Maidenhead community centre and move participants of the building into the back of the town hall temporarily which the creator of the petition, Jack Douglas, the trustee for the centre, called “inadequate.”

Over 500 people have signed the petition calling on cabinet members to reconsider this decision or move users to a more suitable building.

RBWM plans to shut down the building this October where it will be knocked down for flats to be erected as part of their Maidenhead regeneration scheme, adding more homes in the borough.

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Users of the centre will move into the Desborough suite at Maidenhead town hall for about three years, which campaigners call a ‘downsize’ as space will be reduced from 14,000 sqft to 3,000 sqft with no onsite parking.

They also said only part of the room can be used with little to no storage space for people to keep their equipment for classes such as Bollywood dancing, yoga and martial arts.

The previous administration said in August 2018 they would re-establish the Maidenhead community centre in a new purpose-built building so it can perform all its current activities after a previous petition was set up to include a replacement centre in the scheme after the current one is knocked down.

Councillor Geoff Hill (The Borough First: Oldfield), who signed the petition, called this a “broken promise”, but said positive talks have been made with the leader of the council, councillor Andrew Johnson, about the future of the centre.

Councillor Hill said: “I would encourage the council to keep the promise made at full council in 2018 in full.”

A spokeswoman from RBWM said: “We have been in discussions with Maidenhead Community Centre for a long time and we are currently in the process of drafting a letter offering two potential relocation options.

“We look forward to discussing these with them.”

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Jack Douglas said: “Under the two proposals from RBWM many of our activities won’t be able to continue due to the severe downsizing and removal of all our parking spaces.

“The 2018 promise was that the centre would be able to ‘perform all its current activities’ — we are still hoping for a better offer in line with that promise.”

Visit https://petitions.rbwm.gov.uk/save-the-centre2/