Charity set to run £1m centre

The facility forms part of the large site six estate on which work is expected to begin early next year between North Bersted Street and Chichester Road.

The centre and its landscaping has to be completed and handed over to Arun District Council before the occupation of more than 245 dwellings for sale. The developers are likely to complete about a hundred of the total of 650 homes each year once building work starts. A third of them will be affordable dwellings.

The two companies involved '“ Berkeley Homes and Persimmon Homes '“ have to provide a 900,000 bond to Arun to enable the council to pay for the community centre if the companies fail to honour their commitment.

Bersted Parish Council has agreed to propose that the centre should be run by a charitable trust.

It has submitted an interest in the operation of the centre. This will be considered by Arun, which is likely to own the land on which the hall is built.

If the interest is accepted, it will be up to the parish council to submit detailed plans.

The trustees would be parish councillors, users of the building and representatives of the wider community.

Management will be carried out by a committee of councillors and users of the facility.

The day to day running will be delegated to a facilities manager, cleaner/caretaker and groundsman or woman.

A professional bar manager and staff will be required.

Parish council clerk Michael Johnson said the one potential sticking point was the length of lease which would be granted for the hall's operation. This could be as short as 25 years, putting a question mark over the viability of investing in the building.

But Cllr Simon McDougall urged councillors to support the statement of intent.

'Do we want to have any say or control on what is going to go on on that estate or do we want to pick up the tab when the problems start to occur?

'As we have learned from the past, badly designed schemes always end up with this council picking up the bill,' he stated.