A REPLACEMENT for an ageing community centre where the walls were once on the verge of falling down is set to be decided tonight.

Last week, a budget of £1.4million was set by Oxford City Council for Bullingdon Community Centre at Peat Moors, in Headington.

Now, the council’s east area planning committee is set to decide on whether building work should begin at its meeting tonight in Oxford Town Hall.

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The committee is recommended to approve the plans to knock down the current community centre, built in the 1960s, and replace it with a new modern building.

The new building would contain a main hall, kitchen, office and storage with a central atrium and an entrance lobby.

Oxford Mail:

Picture: Jon Lewis.

A report to the committee said the new community centre ‘would provide a new community centre which would be an asset to the local community without causing harm to the character and appearance of the area, neighbouring amenity, trees or drainage into the Lye Valley [Site of Special Scientific Interest].’

In July 2017, groups using the the community centre were asked to move out because of decaying walls.

The council then installed props along one side of the building and it was re-opened.

A plan to knock down part of the community centre and rebuild it, which was set to costs £500,000, was scrapped in 2018.

This was because the council discovered that the original centre on Peat Moors had been built on top of a former quarry which was filled in.

Oxford Mail:

Bullingdon Community Centre.

A report by council staff to last week’s full council meeting said they had to increase the budget for the project by £200,000 to £1.4 million.

This budget increase was partly due to the discovery of quarried land underneath the centre.

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There is a long history of a community centre existing on the site, according to Oxford City Council records.

A temporary community centre building was first approved for the site in 1949.

A more permanent building was built at the site in 1962 and extensions were later added on in later years.

For more information about the planning application, search reference 19/02984/CT3 on the Oxford City Council planning web page.