The Wimbledon Community Association website was launched on 20th August 2000 with the aim of providing an information service to the groups and individuals who use the Wimbledon Community Centre in St George's Road.
  For background information on the Association and its present structure, follow this link.

Open Meeting Monday 16th May at 19.30 in the Main Hall

A Letter from the Chairman, Steven Ashcroft
24 April 2005

To: Members of the Wimbledon Community Association
      Organisations affiliated to the Wimbledon Community Association
      Other regular users of The Community Centre

Dear Friends,

You will recall that some time ago the WCA was invited to become a “partner” in the proposed Arts and Community Centre on the P4 site, next to Wimbledon Theatre.

We responded that we were interested providing that the community facilities offered were at least the equivalent of those which we now enjoy.

The time has now come to make a firm decision (indeed, the Council and its consultants feel it is already rather late for making one). 

We wish, however to consult you, our users and members, before doing so and have held back in the hope of receiving clear information from the Council; but, there are still significant areas of uncertainty.

One thing that is clear is that the A&CC will be a newer, smarter and better designed (venue) building than our current St George’s Road facilities. 

It is mooted that a development on the P4 site would replace our centre, the Merton Hall in Kingston Road and, to a significant extent, the old Wimbledon Civic Centre.

Management would be by a newly set-up charitable trust operating through a sub-lease to a management company. The aims of the charitable trust would, broadly, include those of the WCA.

There would be no area exclusively for the use of WCA, its members and affiliates. Our current users would have to compete for space with the current users of Merton Hall and other organisations which may be attracted to the new facility.

In the absence of an exclusive area for WCA-controlled usage, we are finding it difficult to assess whether or not the criterion of a facility at least the equal of what is now offered would be met, though the total floor space would undoubtedly be larger. There is no suggestion that a small hall, the equivalent of our present one, would be provided. There is provision for only one hall three times the size.

It is also unclear what the costs of the new facility will be. Indicative, but not guaranteed, fees for community users have been provided. The consultants believe these are similar to what we currently charge, but they seem to us significantly higher.

There will, as far as we know, be no provision for individual membership.

The “partnership” offered, in the event, means that the WCA would be swallowed up by the new charitable trust. In effect, WCA (though it may retain a paper existence for a time) would cease to exist. Some of us may –- though this is not guaranteed –- be asked to become trustees of the new trust (personally, I have no interest in this, though some of my colleagues have considered taking such a position for a short time to try to protect the interests of our current members and users). Our present employees may be offered positions at the new centre, but again there are no guarantees of this.

We now have to decide whether to go along with the above, or continue to try to improve our present activities on our present site. However, it should be noted that the lack of a formal lease on the St George's Road property together the existence of only a minority equity interest, makes it difficult for us to raise any funding for renovation or rebuilding on the present site. On the other hand, whether the new centre on the P4 site would, in the end, come into being and prove viable is also uncertain.

As trustees, we need your advice. 

We are, therefore, proposing to hold a meeting, to which you are invited at St George’s Road at 19.30 on Monday 16th May 2005 to consider our response. If you are unable to attend, we shall be happy to receive your thoughts in writing, and will take them into account. 

Please reply; IT IS IMPORTANT WE KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.

Yours faithfully
Stephen Ashcroft
Chairman

cc: Cllr Andrew Judge, Leader of the Council
Cllr David Williams, Leader of the Opposition

A Letter from the Chairman, Steven Ashcroft
October 2004...  Click here... 

To get some idea of the range of groups who use the Centre, go to the Meetings page on this site.  

Wimbledon Community Association

A recently discovered poster 
announcing public meeting dated 1946

Last updated 03 May 2005