CHARLES
BURRELL CENTRE COMMITTEE
Report
for Mayor Making / Annual Town Meeting – May 2015
By
Terry Jermy
The
Charles Burrell Committee met frequently over the past year as the plan to
re-open the Centre materalised and things quickly took off. This time last year
our first tenants had moved in and began delivering their activities. Word
quickly spread that the Centre was open for business and several new
organisations came forward. 2 became 4, which became 8, which became 16 quite
quickly – as of today there’s 27 permanent tenants and up to 30 regular
sessional hirers. The project received a significant boost in September last
year when a new manager came onboard in the form of Mark Snowdon, a former
Charles Burrell pupil himself who had 9 years experience as the Deputy Manager
at the Leisure Centre. Marks first week of work was dominated by the Centres
Open Day that took place on the 6th September which turned out to be
a huge success, organized by one the centres regular volunteers – Sharon Nash. The
event gave groups that use the Centre the opportunity to showcase themselves;
recruiting new volunteers and members and raising funds in some cases. The open
day also gave former pupils, some from the 1960’s and 70’s the chance to walk
around the school and see how it had changed over time. Several former teachers
also attended. Pupils and teachers alike were so pleased that the school had
been saved from demolition. It was pleasing to be able to offer former pupils
and teachers with a venue to hold a memorable service to notable former
headmaster Derek Briggs who sadly passed away – a memorial bench dedicated to
Mr Briggs now also stands in the middle courtyard section of the site.
Moving
forward, new tenants continued to confirm throughout the Autumn and into the
Winter months – the most significant of which was West Suffolk College who
committed to six classrooms and two offices, not just boosting the Centre
financially, but also improving the education and training offer in Thetford –
a win win for the town. The most recent tenant to confirm has been Hertz, the
car rental business, highlighting that the Centre is a home for a broad range
of organisations ranging from Thetford Foodbank through to commercial
businesses – all benefitting from usage of the centre and additionally
benefiting from increased networking opportunities and enhanced ability to work
together; sharing ideas and resources wherever possible.
This
rush of interest at the start of this year led to the Town Council agreeing an
injection of cash to bring forward the recruitment of a new full-time
administration assistant to help with the rapidly increasing enquiries and
admin related tasks. We were pleased to be able to offer the position to Karen
Robinson, a resident of the Barnham Cross area and herself a former user of the
site through her daughters involvement with roller skating. Karen was one of
the people that attended the public meeting way back in July 2013 to discuss
keeping the site open, fitting therefore that Karen was now joining the staff
team to make the project a success.
From
the 1st April this year the Centre has been run by a newly created
organization – Charles Burrell Centre Ltd – which has taken on the management
and development of the site from Thetford Town Council. This saw the completion
of the Committees work and our last meeting took place during March of this
year. From the 1st April a new management committee was formed for
Charles Burrell Centre Ltd, consisting of 11 members. There are 3 Town Council
representatives, elected by the Town Council, 3 tenant representatives elected
by tenants at the Centre, 1 Norfolk County Council representative, elected by
the NCC Communities Committee and 1 community representative, the current
Chairman of the Barnham residents group. In addition to this there are 3
co-opted members of the board, chosen for specific skills and experience which
they can offer. This new board, democratically chosen in an open and
transparent way as it should be and reflecting the various stakeholders that
exist.
It
is early days but the new board are already making fantastic progress and they
are optimistic for the year ahead. Anyone can become a member of the new
organization and have a say in the future of the Centre, shares can be
purchased for just £1 and as you might expect, I have share forms here if
anyone would like one. In addition, there’s numerous volunteering opportunities
at the Centre so please do enquire if you are interested. Applications forms
also available!
We
were incredibly fortunate to safeguard Charles Burrell for the town, a rare
window of opportunity, and rarer still, one that was grasped. Now it’s everyone’s
job to keep it available and to enable it to thrive. Throughout our research
stage we travelled to both Barnsley and Leeds to view examples of good
community projects and to learn from what they had done. Our discussion on
the train journey home on those occasions about how it would be great for
people to visit Thetford to learn from our community, may just be that little
bit more realistic now. Thank-you.
