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7 September 

SOWYC group attended the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting to ask questions and hear more about the Council's proposals.  The role of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee is to provide pre-decision scrutiny of all Cabinet decisions.

Papers for the Committee are supposed to be made available to the public five working days before the meeting takes place but the paper with recommendations on the future of WYC were only published 24 hours before the meeting meaning Councillors and members of the public had limited time to review the report. 

6 September

Save Our Wanstead Youth Centre (SOWYC) group cautiously welcomed the news that Redbridge Council appears to have listened to the voice of the community and reversed its plans to close Wanstead Youth Centre (WYC) after over 5,000 people signed a petition opposing its closure. We also welcomed the news that the Council has now identified the funds needed to bring the facility up to modern standards and rectify the historical lack of maintenance that was noted in the Council’s own building survey. 

However, we were concerned that some critical details were missing from the proposal to develop an ‘education and youth hub’ at WYC: 

• what youth work will be provided from WYC to enable the Council to fulfil its statutory duties and recommendations from its own Safe Redbridge Policy Committee to extend provision of youth services in every part of the borough? There are no details on this in the current proposal, so where are the guarantees that this will happen? 
• what exactly is the nature of the ‘revamped and improved’ community facilities and how will that be more effectively managed than has been done previously? There are no outline floor plans of how WYC would be redeveloped to fulfil the Education requirements so clarity is needed on what facilities will actually be available to the wider community.

The decision regarding the future of WYC will impact on lives and the future of young people, marginalised groups that include all users/potential users of WYC.

As the seven recommendations on page 1 of the Council’s report are misleading, we requested that as a minimum the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 7 September recommended that Cabinet decides on 14 September to set up a Community Forum as per their Standing Orders to meaningfully consult with a view to reaching agreement within an agreed reasonable time frame. 

To allow for this WYC must not ‘close to hirers from 15 October’ as is being recommended to Cabinet. This will leave WYC open to vandalism, crime, further decay, when the Council could instead, while finalising the business plan for the 'education and youth hub', continue to generate income. This is despite Vision having lost the Council at least six long-standing major contracts of services being delivered to hundreds of children and young people each week since the announcement of the closure on 30 January.

Following a flawed consultation process to date, we trust the Council to honour their commitment to the residents of Redbridge and comply with their legal obligations by as a minimum, meaningfully consulting with young people and the wider community while proposals are in their conceptual phase to ensure decisions are made in the interests of young people, marginalised groups and the wider community. 

7 August 2023

Save Our Wanstead Youth Centre group brought the campaign to central London and Parliament to raise awareness of the closure threat.

Saturday 15 July 2023

More than 350 people attended a joint open day at the Centre organised by SOWYC for Vision to showcase the facilities on offer and provide fun activities for young people and the wider community. The Open Day was organised following concerns about the lack of publicity/marketing of the youth centre including its location, facilities and services it has to offer. 

Feedback on the day was that many people had not been aware that WYC existed, let alone what it had to offer. There was strong acknowledgement of how valuable a community asset it is and could grow into if properly managed and developed.

20 July 2023

SOWYC put forward five questions to be asked at the Cabinet meeting and received feedback that questions 1, 3 and 4 were 'not substantive items on the agenda' and therefore not allowed to be asked. 

The first part of Question 2 was permitted to be asked following vetting with the response from the Council that the fees to Vision have not been increased - the only increase is to cover the impact of inflation. 

Question 5 was permitted to be asked with the response highlighting the Discover Redbridge website.  

 Q1 - This question relates to Agenda item 5 – Forward Plan – September 2023 item 6 “Future of Wanstead Youth Centre”.  Section 2 of the Constitution – “STANDING ORDERS RELATING TO CABINET AND COMMITTEES” clause 36.1 allows for the setting up of Community Forums and Partnerships.  Clause 36.3 states – “Community Forums and Partnerships are intended to bring the Council closer to the local community. Membership will include councillors from each political group in accordance with proportionality principles, and may include representatives of other agencies, community groups or organisations. Papers will be available to councillors and the press and public. Meetings will be open to the public, who will be given the opportunity to participate in discussion.”

As the decision about the future of Wanstead Youth Centre will affect the lives of the residents of Redbridge and there has been overwhelming support opposing the closure, we respectfully request that a Community Forum is set up as soon as possible. If the time constraints will affect the setting up of the Community Forum, we request that a discussion takes place today, whether to reschedule the date of 14 September 2023, so that it allows a reasonable time frame for meaningful engagement as stated by the Leader of the Council would be undertaken.

Q2.  This is under item 7 -  Budgetary Control Report for Month 2. Paragraph 1.4 references Appendix A – Detailed General Fund Revenue. Within Appendix A under the “General Fund Revenue Forecast Table” the Regeneration and Culture Directorate are forecasting an overspend of £3.781m with, amongst other things, “£0.843m pressure relates to CPI increase towards Vision's management fee”. Please provide the details of how much is allocated for the Vision management fee and how much it is being increased by.

As the Director for Regeneration and Culture, finally informed us 2 days ago that the costs for running WYC is £150,000 and the income is just £60k-£70k, we find it very hard to believe the latter with over 1200 users per week (numbers have dropped since the premature  announcement of the closure as they were about 2000) going up to 2500 during the holiday period, the calculations just do not work out.  Furthermore, we are concerned that WYC is unnecessary increasing its expenditure for example having the heating turned on all day, and so forth unnecessarily increasing the the utility bills.  Hirers have bot been invoiced for the past 6 months.  Yet the Director of Regeneration and Culture advised us that no checks are done and income and expenditure details provided by Vision are based on trust".  Yet public monies have been paid out as subsidies to Vison, based on trust, sounds unbelievable to us.

So prior to agreeing the increase of the management fee, we request that the appropriate body made up by the Council and involves at least 2 of us, undertakes an analysis and scrutiny of Vision's performance of the Contract.  Please also advise whether there are any penalty clauses in the contract with Vision for poor performance, negligence and/or failures.  If there is a finding of those elements, does the contract have clauses to hold Vision responsible, culpable or liable to put right/make good those elements.  If there are no penalty clauses, please explain why not?  

 In addition, can an appropriate body of the Council review the contract with Vision to determine whether it is indeed getting value for money, given the numerous failures at one centre in the west of the borough in particular.

Q3.  Re Agenda item 12 “Our Future Fairlop – Final Masterplan”.  We welcome the “Masterplan” to develop Fairlop Waters.  However, given the magnitude of the positive impact that retaining the only remaining centre of its kind in the west of the borough will have on young people and the wider community, we respectfully request that a Community Forum is set up to develop a similar “Masterplan” for that centre and that a reasonable time frame is agreed to achieve that objective.  We believe that this should have been done at the outset and prior to the announcement of closure (losing valuable income) and undertaking the survey that commenced on 30 January 2023.  Repairs and maintenance are not being dealt with such as the lights in the sports hall (health and safety issue), that we have been complaining about for months, despite them being under warranty.   As Vision have not advised us of what action they undertook such as accessing funding, charity, lottery monies and so forth, we believe to have prematurely announced the closure is the reason for our perception that we are dealing with a fait accompli.  Nonetheless, it is vital that a similar planning process is undertaken now having had council listen to the views of all groups within the community and a petition with over 5000 signatories a few months ago.

Q4. This is in relation to Agenda item 5 – Forward Plan – – September 2023 item 3 “Sustainable Transport Strategy Public Consultation Draft”. We respectfully request that the Cabinet liaises with Transport for London and the Mayor of London to improve public transport links, with a focus on schools, hospitals, supermarkets and shopping, leisure and sports centres.  There is an urgency about this as a consultation exercise is being carried out by Transport for London in relation to the bus services in the west of the Borough.

Q5.  This is in relation to Agenda item 15 “Digital Programme Shaping our Future”. As the ambition of the Digital Programme Shaping our Future is to deliver a new and improved customer experience - budgetary savings as well as self-serve models of delivery - we respectfully request that the Cabinet includes in the programme, the setting up of an electronic booking system for all leisure and sports facilities, that also logs the numbers of users for each.  We request that this is done jointly with Vision since as a registered charity it will be able to apply for monies to fund the installation and running of the system. 

26 June 2023

The Council refuses permission for two questions about the Council’s Forward Plan in relation to Wanstead Youth Centre to be asked at the Full Council Meeting

Question 1:

As you are aware The Redbridge Plan encompasses prevention, collaboration and responsibility. It has been stated that Redbridge wants to be a truly inclusive borough for all young people by supporting healthy physically active lifestyles for all to improve their health, plus keep vulnerable adults, children and young people safe from harm and abuse. Wanstead Youth Centre is currently used for all of these purposes YET you are proposal a final decision on the centre at the Council meeting in September. Give us the assurance that you will constructively consult with the campaign in collaboration with the residents. Only by doing this will you be able to monitor the effectiveness of your delivery as set out in the Redbridge Plan.

Question 2

The local papers have quoted that the council have £14m for leisure facilities in the borough and several key activities were listed. Two that stood out were

• Running Summer and Easter programmes of culture and sports
• Establishing a creative and sporting clubs programme

Has Wanstead Youth Centre been considered as a venue for any of these activities. It is a suitable for young, old, vulnerable and those with disabilities and it currently serves those purposes and communities very well at the moment.

 2 June 2023

Jas Athwal confirms via the local press that the decision about the future of Wanstead Youth Centre will be made at September’s Cabinet Meeting. SOWYC thanks Councillors, Young People and the wider Community for their support in achieving this positive response, and repeat our requests to the council to ensure they are taking into consideration that over 5,000 people signed the petition to oppose the closure of the centre, and to commence a meaningful consultation with the users of the youth centre, to inform the report being compiled for September’s Cabinet meeting.

Unfortunately many Centre users were not informed directly about this latest development. 

26 May 2023

Local MP John Cryer attends an open meeting at the Centre following an invitation from SOWYC. John confirmed that he like the rest of the community, is not being updated by the council on discussions and developments regarding the centre and is going to write again to the council to request a meeting.

23 March 2023 

The future of Wanstead Youth Centre was the subject of a brief debate at a Redbridge Council Meeting after SOWYC gathered more than 5,000 signatures to a petition opposing its closure. SOWYC's request for a 12 month moratorium to enable the council to meaningfully engage with WYC users and to explore different funding options to secure the centre's future was not acknowledged. Councillors voted in favour of a motion put forward by Leader of the Council Jas Athwal to develop a 'comprehensive directory' that would give residents easy access to organisations, clubs and activities. This failed to address the key concern that there is no other centre like this in the borough and many activities that take place there will have to end if the centre closes as there are no viable alternatives in the local area - due to accessibility and availability issues. Read more about the meeting here

13 March 2023

SOWYC submits a paper calling on the Council  to delay the closure of Wanstead Youth Centre, currently scheduled for May 2023, for  at least a further twelve months. This extended period would allow the Council to engage more closely with the residents of  Redbridge and the wider community, represented by the Save Our Wanstead Youth Centre  Campaign Group The aim is that, by working constructively together, we can find a mutually beneficial solution  to saving and keeping open the WYC and ensure that its ongoing maintenance and  operating costs are able to be adequately funded.

To date a response to this paper has not been received by SOWYC.   

7 March 2023

 SOWYC organises a public meeting to ensure the community’s voice is heard by those deciding on the youth centre’s future. More than 250 people turned up and emphasised to the Council, Vision management and councillors the value of WYC in building stronger cohesion between diverse and marginalised groups, contributed to improved health of all ages and combating the crime and drug culture threatening the youth of Redbridge  Read more here Wanstead Youth Centre campaigners: ‘Wait a year’ – Wansteadium  

30 January 2023

The Council runs a 6-week online only consultation survey. after announcing their proposal to close the Centre by the end of May 2023 - giving most users just three months notice. Many people felt excluded from the consultation as they did not have access to a computer or were not familiar with filling in an online survey. Some were concerned that equality impact assessments were not undertaken prior to using an online survey as the sole means of consulting the community. 

SOWYC organised a petition - on and offline - which gathered over 5,000 signatures opposing the closure of WYC.