Community centre refresh gets funding boost

A North Yorkshire community venue is completing a refurbishment project designed to improve facilities for local groups and visitors.

Hunmanby Community Centre has secured a £1970 grant from the Banks Community Fund to help finish redecoration works at its Stonegate building.

The funding has enabled the centre’s management committee to appoint local decorator Andy Ringrose to complete plastering and repainting work in the building’s corridors, which are the final areas still requiring refurbishment.

Over recent years, caretaker Jamie Oxtoby has led improvements throughout the centre, redecorating rooms used by dozens of community organisations and activities each month.

Originally opened in the 1980s, the volunteer-run venue hosts around 30 regular groups including fitness classes, dance sessions, youth meetings, coffee mornings and arts activities, alongside live music and theatre performances.

Sue Leyland, secretary to the Hunmanby Community Centre management committee, said: “Jamie has done a great job redecorating all the rooms, but the corridors were a bit too big of a job for him to take on and we didn’t have the money available to bring someone in from outside.

“The need to attend to the corridors was becoming increasingly obvious as they’re a bit gloomy, which doesn’t match with the rest of the building and with the type of environment that we want to offer everyone that comes here.

“The Banks Group’s backing has been really helpful in enabling us to finish off the refurbishment work and we’re looking forward to be able to provide an even better welcome for all our visitors.”

The grant comes from the Banks Community Fund, managed independently by Point North, with County Durham-headquartered Banks Group currently progressing plans for a proposed housing development in Hunmanby.

Jamilah Hassan, community relations manager at the Banks Group, added: “Venues like Hunmanby Community Centre are at the very centre of local life and we’re very pleased to be able to help the management committee complete their refurbishment work.”

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