Residents' fury as Ashford Borough Council sells off Kingsnorth Recreation Centre

Residents say they had "no idea" a council was planning to sell off a much-loved community centre in Kingsnorth, Ashford.

Transcript

00:00 I heard about it very shortly before Christmas actually and I was disappointed

00:04 to see that I'd missed the 14 day period to write to the council and object to

00:10 this, which was very upsetting that this wasn't more publicised at the time.

00:16 As a resident I've used the centre many times. I've set up community meetings here and

00:21 we've used it and it's been a lovely venue to use, nice and clean, nice and

00:26 bright. I also used to attend church services here too. It makes me feel

00:31 worried because I'm not really sure how this building is still going to be

00:36 accessible to the community. It may still be that community members can still use

00:41 the facility, but at what cost? I'm very concerned that the rent may be put up, it

00:48 may be doubled or even quadrupled, who knows.

00:51 It was purely a throwaway comment from a friend who said that, oh did I know that

00:55 the hall was being sold? And I said no, I had no idea and I started to look online,

00:59 couldn't find anything about it, so I started to put on social media, did

01:03 anyone know about it, was anyone aware? And as far as I could see nobody did

01:07 know and I just wrote to Damien Green, I rang the parish council. I just

01:13 went online generally because I was shocked because I felt that this building

01:17 belonged to this area particularly. I mean obviously used by any area but you

01:21 know Kings North do use this as a facility and I thought well how can the

01:25 council just sell it without real public debate or notice? And I'd much rather it

01:31 stayed within a community holding if you like, that Kings North stay

01:37 responsible for it and not a private owner. There's a lack of nursery

01:42 spaces right now and I would be very concerned if this fell into

01:46 public, into private hands because you just don't know what could happen, you

01:52 just don't know if they could close it down, I mean if they decide

01:58 that they don't want a nursery here, I mean it would be devastating for so many

02:02 parents. I am very fearful of the future centre, once it's in private hands

02:06 anything could happen to it, it should be in public ownership. It was built with

02:11 106 agreement so it was built with taxes which was so it should remain in public

02:16 ownership. I think it's vital that if they do sell it and we can't keep it in

02:21 public ownership through the community that all the money raised should be

02:26 refunded and ring-fenced for the parish of Kings North and even if necessary

02:31 handed to the parish council so the parish council can build facilities.