THE submission of a planning application for an Oxford estate’s new £3m community centre has been delayed as the city council considers feedback from residents.
Proposals for the new Rose Hill centre – in Ashhurst Way on the site of the Rose Hill and Donnington advice centre – were originally due to be submitted in March.
But Louisa Dean, spokeswoman for Oxford City Council, said: “Due to the range and volume of comments from the successful community event in November, we are anticipating that the planning application for the new Rose Hill Community Centre will be submitted in May.”
In November, a poll saw 459 of the 585 voters from the estate opt to build the new community centre and 126 back the second option, which was a revamp of the existing site.
The project will bring the social club, advice centre, sports pavilion and youth club together and could open in early 2015.
The existing centre would be demolished and the site could be used to provide housing.
Members of the Rose Hill Community Association gathered at the existing community centre in The Oval last Monday to hold its AGM.
But the meeting was postponed for 14 days because it did not attract the 25 people needed.
Chairman Carol Davis told the Oxford Mail that members would give the new community centre a go, but they still had concerns.
She said: “All of us here still think it is in the wrong place.
“A lot of our older people come here. They have actually said they won’t use the new centre. Here, the bus stop is outside the building.
“They feel the new location is a bit isolated for them.”
Ms Davis added that while the association will be involved in the running of the new centre, members of the community would need to volunteer to help look after what is expected to be a larger building.
She said: “When we get into this new building, are all those people who said they need it going to go along and do the voluntary work?
“Because it is the voluntary work that keeps it going.
“It is all right for people to say ‘we want this and that’. But are they prepared to run it?”
The community association’s rescheduled AGM will be held on Monday, April 8, at 7.30pm at Rose Hill Community Centre in The Oval.
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