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Joy as work starts on new community centre
From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Thursday 3rd May 2001.
RESIDENTS are celebrating the start of work on a new, long-awaited community centre in Rudloe.
It will replace the dilapidated Rudloe Social Club that villagers have struggled to make do with for years.
The chairman of North Wiltshire District Council, Lynda Barber, officiated at a lifting of the sod ceremony on Monday at the building site in Westwood Road, next to the social club.
The new £850,000 community centre should be completed by the end of the year. It will be a multi-purpose building including a hall, meeting room, bar and snooker/pool room.
Supporter Grace McLaughlin, of Southcroft Road, said residents were delighted work was under way.
"It will be absolutely wonderful," she said. "We have been struggling with the old building which is very dilapidated."
Mrs McLaughlin, who has lived in Rudloe for 23 years, said the old social club was falling apart.
"It's very cold and hard to heat, and it's huge. We don't use half of it. It looks awful. It's just not nice to sit in there."
The social club will be demolished in January 2002, and that part of the site will be used to provide affordable housing for the area.
Residents have been pressing for a new facility for about four years.
Mrs McLaughlin praised the district council for the consultation, which included sending out leaflets and holding meetings to find out want facilities were wanted.
"They really did it well," she said.
Access for people with disabilities, environmental issues and the overall appearance of the centre were important factors in its design.
The new building will be used for the youth group, pensioners' social group, parent and toddler groups, and bingo.
The district council said the existing Rudloe Social Club was currently unsuitable for use as a community facility because of its state of disrepair and high maintenance costs.
A working group made up of town, parish and district council members, housing association representatives, residents and centre users was formed, to work with the district council to develop the project.
A new community association is being set up to manage the new centre and it met for the first time last week at the social club. Money for the new building was provided entirely by the district council.
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