Former community centre goes under the hammer
See story on news pagesI don't particularly approve of housing being used for non-housing purposes but it is a pity to see yet another demise of a location for community groups. The adjacent wildlife area was often visited by the children of Miles Coverdale SchoolMore worryingly, there has been an acceleration in recent months of the folding of community groups in the borough due to withdrawal of borough support. Now I recall the period after 1986 when Labour came into power - the last occasion before 2006 when the council changed hands - when I told the chair of the then Community Organisations Support Committee that even with an injection of cash into the budget, which there was, the only real way to get more funds into the hands of all the new community bodies was to reduce or turn the tap of the funding of some existing ones. In short, it was a question of assessing priorities and also of judging competence and effectiveness of spend.Now I don't doubt that the incoming Tories has attempted to do a little bit of this = assessing priorities and also of judging competence and effectiveness of spend - but the signs are that their assessing of priorities is having the effect of reducing the funding of organisations either run by ethnic minorities or operating where the ethnic minority populations are likely to be substantial beneficiaries. I understand there are now NO ethnic minority organisations remaining council-funded (in part or in whole) left in the borough; I stand to be corrected if I'm wrong. This pockets of core-funding money can achieve results out of proportion to their size, provided they are kept going. The reality is that small organisations cannot be self-funded and die without core funding. I cannot help making the contrast with organisations supposedly assisting people into or back into employment - here the funding can run into tens or hundreds or thousands and premises are lavish, main street properties. Count for yourself how many properties from John Snow down to the Central Line tube are in this area of operation.I also suspect that more wealthy Fulham is getting a higher proportion of the diminishing cake than previously.
Dan Filson ● 5774d1 Comments