NORTHWAY Community Association (NCA) runs the community centre under licence from the city council.

It desperately needs new blood and ideas to inject life into the heart of Northway.

There are some important activities (e.g. weekly lunch club for older residents) but the centre is often locked tight during the day. Many residents never go near the centre. It needs new energy. Steven Bennett (ViewPoints, December 6) makes a common mistake. Northway Social Club Ltd runs the bar within the centre as a trading enterprise.

The association sub-licenses bar space to the company. NCA and NSC Ltd are two separate bodies and this must clearly be maintained. Charity law forbids NCA from running commercial/trading activities. I have worked with NCA to modernise its management and bring a new approach but that help was rebuffed by the current trustees.

At the moment NCA does not meet its constitution to provide education, social welfare, recreation and leisure activities for the benefit of all Northway residents. Oxford City Council has secured, with its partners, a brand new community centre to be built (including bar space) in the next few years.

Without better management and new policies at NCA that opportunity is put at risk. I will work with residents to secure the transition and betterment of NCA and a positive future for a new centre at the heart of Northway.

ROY DARKE, City Councillor for Headington Hill & Northway