Community groups homeless as flood-hit centre forced to shut for months
A flood-damaged community centre has been forced to close for nearly three months leaving groups with nowhere to go.
Great Wyrley Community Centre will be shut down for eight to 10 weeks for repairs after it was deemed too dangerous to be used by the many groups who call it home.
Bosses at the centre in Landywood Lane called it a ‘nightmare.’
Chairman of the parish council Helen Snape said insurance assessors had revealed the damage was far worse than anyone first thought after the storms at the end of last month.
She said: “We knew it was bad as the day after it happened we were in there removing carpet. We couldn't get an assessor in until a few days later to look.
“It’s a nightmare. We’ve been refurbishing the centre over the last 12 months and some of the flooring had only gone down a few weeks before.
"We had a sprung dance floor too in the main hall, it’s the only one in the area. We’d just had it refurbished and polished up.
“We think we even might have to replace the doors too.”
The community centre hosts weight loss meetings, dance groups, art classes, blood donation sessions and much more – all of which will have to find a new home until August at the earliest.
Councillor Snape added that work to fix the hall started immediately, in a bid to get it back open as soon as possible.
“We are fully booked every week, so our groups are having to find other places," she said.
“We had our last parish council meeting at the table tennis club.
"It’s just environmentally unsafe. It’s difficult to say when we might open again as it depends on how it dries out.”
Locals were quick to react to the news, with Joy Cornock writing on Facebook: “Such a shame after it’s only recently been done out so beautifully.”
Brenda Jenkins said: “I am sorry it will take so long to repair the centre.
"If anyone in the village can help our art class to find temporary building to continue our classes I would be most grateful.”
