While the Leicester Mercury, assorted politicos and various heritage junkies were getting their knickers in a twist about the demolition of the Bowstring Bridge a much more depressing sight could be seen on the outskirts of Leicester. The Greenacres community centre stands empty and increasingly vandalised eighteen months after it was due to open. As is the way of the internet the upbeat press release trumpeting it's opening is still online, as is the East Midlands Development Agency page about it - under the heading Success Stories! Although I suppose it was a success for someone, the £1.7m it cost went somewhere.
I was particularly looking forward to seeing it open. It was going to be run by local people (CHAOS Enterprises - maybe in hindsight not the greatest name). There was going to a cafe, workshops - it was located next to the Great Central railway and the, now booming, Red Hill allotments. I could see huge potential as a local hub linking the sometimes rather disparate communities of Mowmacre Hill, Belgrave and Birstall. Sadly it was not to be. Now it's only of interest to "urban explorers".
So what news on the development? You might think that this would be of interest to the Mercury. A load of public money down the drain, rumours about mismanagement, a brand new building (and rather a good looking one at that) standing empty? And yet the last time the local newspaper bothered to come this far out of the city centre was in October 2008 when they reported that the council was looking for another organisation to run the place. Since then nothing. What happened to the organisation that ran it? What are the council doing about getting it open? The people of Mowmacre Hill, not to mention Belgrave and Birstall, deserve some answers.
Monday 4 January 2010
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