The Mayor of the Borough of Harrogate, Councillor Michael Newby joined members of the Fairfax Community Centre Management Committee and Centre Staff at their Open Evening last Thursday.
The Centre has recently raised nearly £14,000 to provide a wide range of new activities at the Community Centre and wanted to thank all its Partners and Agencies for their support together with Harrogate Borough Council who have just completed a complete refurbishment of the Community Centre.
The Community Centre now has a new IT suite; a multipurpose room is available to local residents, groups and businesses for use as a meeting room and a large hall. The kitchen which is available to all Centre users has new equipment and utensils, provided by Harrogate Lions. Together with new energy lighting, decorating and carpeting this makes the Centre a suitable venue for the whole community.
Some of the new activities include a ‘Drop In’ Zone. Chair of the Management Committee, Cllr John Fox said, “We are extremely pleased that the Police and Crime Commissioner through the Commissioner’s Community Fund together with Community Safety Partnership and My Neighbour have supported this initiative for 8 to 16 year olds to drop in after school to participate in a wide range of activities. We have over 40 local children signed up for the activity with over 25 young people calling in every evening”.
All the available places on ‘GRUB’ – Great Recipes Under Budget, a 6 week course to help those on a limited budget to prepare nutritional meals, have been taken up. The course has been funded by My Neighbourhood working in partnership with Adult and Learning Skills and the Harrogate Children’s Centre.
To celebrate the Tour de France coming to Harrogate in July the Community Centre are working with local artist Sue Kershaw together with two local schools, Willow Tree and Hookstone Chase, and members from the Fairfax Youth Club to replace the mosaic at the entrance with one depicting cycling through time with the Tour de France logo.
From 12 April all dogs must be chipped by law. The Community Centre working with The Dogs Trust held an event where local residents could call in and have their dog chipped for free. The session had the largest attendance in the District.
Eve Nelson, President of the Harrogate Lions presented the Community Centre with £1000 to support the Centre’s work with IT. Cllr John Fox said, “Our IT suite is available to all residents and we plan to provide support for those who need it to help them to access the internet to search for work or to search for cheaper energy and insurance.”
Any local resident, group, organisation or business who is looking to hire rooms for a special event, meeting or for activities should contact Jane Whittaker, Centre Manager, on 01423 883614..
