Why a new Community Centre

In 1980, the Vicar of St Barnabas Church, with support from the City Council, had the imagination to transform the old Church Institute into a new community centre – and brought together local community leaders to form a new Association to manage it. Now with a similar vision and determination we can create a modern space on the Wharf site to meet the needs of the 21^st Century.

The Institute building has done great service, but the fabric is crumbling, there is no disabled access, and there are limited options for exercise on this small footprint. At one end of the age scale, older people can struggle even to get into the building, and at the other there is little space for young people to really stretch out and enjoy themselves whether for sport or dance or just entertainment.

For four decades, the Jericho Community Association (JCA) has run the building on a largely self-financing basis. The Association gains income from classes and from local and other Oxford residents who hire the centre for anything from ballet to Morris Dancing to birthday parties. Crucially, there are also rooms rented out on an annual basis, to artists, low-cost counsellors, wellness providers and fair-trade operations This provides steady and regular income which helps keep the building in a usable state of repair, pay the Church for occupying its building, and also subsidize free use for groups such as the Jericho Pantry and Alive and Kicking

The new centre will use a similar model. Dance and sports and activity spaces will be hired out for running classes, and studios and offices will be offered to local groups. There will also be a daily café opening onto the square. In this way we can run the building efficiently, while also setting aside funds for future repairs – making this a fully sustainable long-term operation. For this we need enough rooms and sufficient space, so the building thus needs to be a minimum size. And since the community centre is mounted on top of the boatyard, that also establishes a minimum height.

Oxford City Council is responsible for community and sport centres across the City, including the Ferry Centre in North Oxford. But not in the centre of the city in Jericho. We are not asking the City to build one here, but instead, through a compulsory purchase, just make it possible for local residents to create it themselves – creating essential community infrastructure that meets the City’s own declared planning requirements for the site.