Broad Green councillors in Croydon have been trying to resolve a dispute between two local organisations over access to a community hub premises in the town centre.
Big Local Broad Green, a lottery-funded group which promotes the Broad Green area has claimed that the Asian Resource Centre of Croydon, the charity with which it was linked as a condition of its funding has ‘changed the locks’ on the doors of their once shared community hub once their financial agreement ended. They say they can no longer access the premises, which are at the rear of the Centrale Shopping Centre.
However, the Asian Resource Centre say the locks needed to be changed for security reasons because of the number of people and groups having access to the premises and that BLBG has had access to the premises since.
Big Local Broad Green was awarded £1 million in 2016 from Local Trust, run by the National Lottery, to invest money into providing services and opportunities for residents. As a requirement of the Local Trust, regional ‘Big Local’ branches have to appoint a locally trusted organisation to distribute funding and deliver services.
They chose the Asian Resource Centre for Croydon, to manage finances and stand as their legal entity to hold up lease agreements. The Centre works with Asian communities and businesses and also provides health services for Asian residents in Croydon.
Big Local Broad Green acquired the hub in 2019 from the Croydon Partnership, which owns the shopping centres Whitgift and Centrale in Croydon. The lease was in the name of the Asian Resource Centre as the ‘locally trusted organisation.’
In Spring 2022, both organisations came to the end of their service level agreement and both parties chose not to renew it. The dispute over access followed.
Big Local Broad Green said: “This [has] confused us as a steering group because we operate from this space that has our name on the façade, deeming us homeless and denying the community of easy access to this space.”
Councillor Stuart Collins told Eastlondonlines that Big Local Broad Green asked councillors to get involved when they found they could not access the community hub.
In response to this, a spokesperson for the Asian Resource Centre said to Eastlondonlines: “Big Local Broad Green Steering Group have had access to the hub before and after we had changed the locks. ARCC had to change the locks after 30th June 2022, since records showed the keys for the premises were handed out to multiple users and groups, not limited to BLBG. It was necessary for security reasons and in compliance with the terms of our lease. The lock change does not prevent use of the hub and this has been our stance throughout after the termination of our agreement as an LTO to BLBG.”
”The lock change was not specific to BLBG Steering Group or its LTO (Locally Trusted Organisation). As one example, one of the BLBG Steering Group members was using the hub to run activities for a group, on a weekly basis free of charge and for several weeks after the locks were changed. We also received a formal booking enquiry from the new LTO for BLBG and they are able to use the premises as per our hire agreement policy if they wished to do so.”
Big Local Broad Green’s new locally trusted organisation is Community Alliance Broxbourne and East Herts, which supports local volunteering and community groups.
Collins, Councillor Manju Shahul-Hameed and former Councillor Toni Letts had a meeting with the management of the Asian Resource Centre two months ago, where he said they were prepared to make sure Big Local Broad Green can use the hub.
Collins said that Big Local Broad Green tried to use the hub after that, but could not get access. The three councillors wrote a letter to the Asian Resource Centre, who he claims has yet to respond.
He said: “I am very unhappy that having had a meeting with the ARCC to try and allow Big Local Broad Green to use the hub, in which they agreed that it would be okay, they didn’t honour that and they didn’t reply to a letter we were chasing them up on.”
“There is a common-sense solution to this: Big Local Broad Green should be able to use the hub and the ARCC needs to talk to Centrale about getting their own hub.”He said that Big Local Broad Green spent a lot of money on fittings in the hub.
The Hub on Keeley Road. Pic: Google Maps
Councillor Stuart Collins speaking at the opening of the hub in 2019. Pic: Big Local Broad Green
A spokesperson for Big Local Broad Green said: “We are extremely disappointed that a local charity has decided to operate in such a fashion towards another community group who they’ve equally financially benefited from in the past. Our plea is for this organisation to return our space back so we can continue to do some great work.”
The Asian Resource Centre said: “The issue is related to our lease, which is a contractual matter for which we have obtained legal advice resulting in our position. The new LTO has received the correspondence from our legal representative, who were authorised to share it with BLBG Steering Group members.”
