A 50-year-old community centre is at risk of being shut down after receiving an eviction notice.
Trinity Methodist Church in Davenport, Stockport, has been sold due to the terms in the contract and is believed to have been sold for housing developments
The church has been been home to Tabor Lodge, a community centre that is home to local ranger groups, guiding groups, a rainbow group and the local brownies.
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Tabor Lodge is the only community centre in the Woodsmoor area, and with that being shut down it leaves young people in the area without a space for community activities.
The Tabor Lodge committee were given the eviction notice that requires the committee to vacate the building by Easter.
Tabor Lodge consists of 11 group leaders and a committee all of which are volunteers and has around 80 girls who are involved in activities ranging from the ages of four to 16.
The community centre also has a long wait list of young people trying to join their local groups. The Tabor Lodge is also used by residents for community events and training, meaning all residents in the area will be without a community centre.
Heather Parsons, a 2nd Woodsmoor Rainbow and a group/brownie leader, told the Manchester Evening News: "We are extremely upset by it all as as leaders we make a promise to do our best to serve our community and we will continue to try our hardest to ensure we keep this commitment.
"We still have our fighting spirit and will carry on. We put our heart and soul into guiding, we care about the young people in our units and their wellbeing.
"Lots of local units closed during COVID and never reopened. We are determined to keep our girls together."
"We have found temporary accommodation for now which is out of the Woodsmoor area and only half the size of our current hut. This is out of our catchment area and some girls may struggle to get to the new venue. It also needs quite a bit of repair and suffers from flooding.
"In our search for a new home we have found that we were the only community base within the Woodsmoor area and it will now be lost.
"We have been trying to communicate with the church and would like to communicate with the new owners to see if we could at least stay on site until any building begins so we could be caretakers for the site.
"We are extremely worried that whilst planning goes through (which we know could be years) our hut would fall into disrepair or be vandalised which would be very sad and be awful to those in the Trinity Gardens community."
A resident in the Woodsmoor community expressed their concern for the lodge being closed.
"I'm a parent and my daughter has gone before, she absolutely loved it. Why close down something that is actually a positive to our community.
"It keeps our girls out of trouble, it develops their life skills, social skills and brings the community together. Some of the parents told me the girls are devastated.
"I guess they got used to the area. This is also a community centre for us. It's been around for 50 years and I think it's a disgrace they were even thinking about closing it."
Residents and community leaders are pleading for assistance for a new community area to be rebuilt or a new building with enough space to hold participants.
A spokesperson from Stockport Council said: "We have been in touch with the rangers group and community leaders and are assisting them with alternative accommodation."
A spokesperson for Trinity Methodist Church said: “Trinity Methodist Church in Davenport, Stockport has not been meeting since 2021 when the site was put up sale.
"The lease for Tabor Lodge was held with the Girlguiding Association’s national team. We are in ongoing discussion with them on how to best support the guides and brownies who use the lodge and to establish a date that would be convenient for all those involved to vacate the building.”
If you can help Tabor Lodge in any way, you can contact Heather Parsons - heather.parsons55@hotmail.com
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