Save Our Wanstead Youth Centre

Redbridge Council is pressing ahead with plans for an Education Hub at Wanstead Youth Centre and losing the large sports hall. 

Three ways you can continue to support the campaign to retain WYC for the benefit of all the local community and ensure the Council listens to the voices of the community are:

1. Sign our petition to stop the closure of youth and community centres across the UK. 

- Sign here

2. Attend the meetings

The Council is holding three public meetings about the future of WYC (23 Jan, 1 Feb and 8 Feb) and inviting responses to an online survey. Find out more here  Wanstead Youth Centre | Let's Talk Redbridge . Friends of WYC and SOWYC will be gathering at 5.30pm for a 6pm start for each of the meetings at WYC.

3. Write to the Council

Write to colin.stewart@redbridge.gov.uk (copy to savewansteadyouthcentre@gmail.com and jas.athwal@redbridge.gov.uk) requesting as a minimum to reopen WYC for the community to use until such time an agreed process is finalised prior to works commencing. Express concern that an online questionnaire is not consultation. The community needs indoor sports facilities and the reinstatement of youth services at WYC. Emphasise that to simply retain the gym is a white elephant as the space is not big enough for many sports or community events.  

SOWYC is shocked to see the new sign at Wanstead Youth Centre stating that it is now ‘permanently closed’.  This sign is contrary to the Council’s statement that WYC would be temporarily closed for surveying works. The Council has declined to give a date for when these are scheduled to take place.

SOWYC calls on the Council to:

1. confirm when the surveying works will start

2. clarify that this sign is factually incorrect/misleading. 

We look forward to the Council’s response. 

SOWYC thanks the community for supporting the campaign to retain WYC in public ownership. TOGETHER we have achieved this. *As a final push we are asking everyone to help now by sending an email to the council leader.* 

Please copy and paste the template below into an email and send to Jas.Athwal@redbridge.gov.uk copied to John.Cryer.mp@parliament.uk and SaveWansteadYouthCentre@gmail.com. 

It doesn’t matter if you don’t live in the borough as this needs national support. We need thousands of emails to be sent, so please help by sending to all your contacts. 

Subject: Future of Wanstead Youth Centre

Dear Councillor Athwal, 

SOWYC are still waiting to meet with you. We kindly request that you do not close Wanstead Youth Centre (WYC) from 15 October. You have alleged that the closure is "so surveying works can begin". However, no date has been given and due processes have not been followed to date.

We believe to close WYC would be premature. To leave it empty risks vandalism, crime and further irreversible decay. We cannot understand why the Council would do this when it could continue to be used to generate income for the Council. 

We request that users who have nowhere to go are allowed to continue using WYC. This is as it will take months, probably a year or more, to meaningfully consult with the residents of Redbridge, draw up a business case, organise contractors and complete the building works and so forth.

Many young people, marginalised and elderly groups, use WYC for mental, physical and psychological well-being. WYC gives young people a safe place to go - off the streets – and encourages multiculturalism and community cohesion. During this cost of living crisis it also provides a warm space.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said on BBC London news " *Loss of youth clubs : Must be reversed* ..." and we wholeheartedly agree with this. 

We urge you to listen to the voices of people, including those that voted for you, and keep WYC open.

Yours sincerely, 

You can also help by accessing their website - 

http://www.SOWYC.com  or follow on Facebook @  Save_Wanstead_Youth_Centre & Twitter on S_W_Y_C.

SOWYC requests consultation regarding the five options put to Cabinet at their meeting on 14 September.  In the interim, it is not in young people's and the wider community's interest to close WYC, from 15 October 2023.

SOWYC cautiously welcomes Redbridge Council's Cabinet decision to create an Education Hub and Youth Centre on the site and commitment not to demolish it for housing.  However, SOWYC requested if consultation  is to be meaningful, that Council complies with its legal and moral obligations to consult when proposals are in their formative stage with a view to reaching agreement.

At their meeting on 14 September, Cabinet shockingly confirmed that WYC will close from 15 October, with no commitment on when it will re-open. Closing WYC without a firm, or even tentative, re-opening date, not only deprives young people and the wider community of the services and facilities available, it leaves the site open to vandalism and decline, while the Council also loses out on vital income. 

Many of the people who spoke at the meeting, including four young people – Beth, Zak, Lily and Charis – asked the Council to keep the Centre open while plans are firmed up. Regrettably these pleas fell on “deaf ears” contrary to the Leader's undertakings. SOWYC believes the closure will be premature, as it will take months and months if not over a year to develop plans, secure funding and complete the building works. SOWYC has asked to meet with the leader of the Council Jas Athwal, to discuss options for interim arrangements.

Speakers were also keen to hear more about the nature of youth work being promised for the new Education Hub and Youth Centre. While the current proposals outline details for education services, there is no information on the nature of the youth services Redbridge intends to offer to meet their statutory requirements in this area and support young people in the west of the borough. 

Additionally, there are no details on the facilities that will be available for the public, and whether they will be at all comparable to the current extensive facilities of two sports halls, a further two halls, kitchen and fully equipped music recording studio. However, SOWYC welcomed Councillor Athwal’s statement that he is keen to retain music facilities in the new development – particularly given the statement this week from Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective that the band met in a youth club and that their achievement “is testimony to good, special people putting time and effort into helping young people to play music”.

Further speakers challenged the performance of Vision's management of WYC, particularly from a financial perspective over at least the past five years. As SOWYC’s own calculations show, WYC could have been generating almost five times as much income than Vision has allegedly been able to generate. No financial breakdowns were provided in the Council’s Report to substantiate the alleged income and expenditure levels now being quoted, making it impossible to submit counter proposals without that crucial data. SOWYC requested that Council scrutinises Vision’s management of WYC as it should not be based on trust when public monies are being used to subsidise Vision.

We hope the leader’s assurances that ‘we owe it to you to get a centre up and running as soon as possible’ prove to be accurate. 

***

Please join SOWYC at Redbridge Town Hall on Thursday 21 September for the full Council meeting to call on the Council to reject the Cabinet's decision to close WYC on 15 October.