THE Labour-led ‘Save Hawkhill Community Centre’ campaign is advancing, as members of the community express their concerns over the future of the facility.

They have spoken out against the decision to cut funding to Hawkhill Community Association (HCA), the organisation responsible for the centre, and campaigners say the loss will mean the end of the road for HCA and the centre itself.

As previously reported in the Advertiser, HCA lost out on £36,013 of funding from Clackmannanshire Council, following the budget decisions taken in February.

MP Gordon Banks is campaigning to keep funding in place following representations from concerned constituents.

He said, “As I have said previously, the decision to cut the funding to Hawkhill Community Association must be reversed as a matter of urgency.

“There is great need for the Hawkhill Community Association and this life-affirming centre, both of which provide services to so many people in the area.” Committee members, community groups and others who have benefited from the work being done have shared their worries and explained their positive encounters with the association and centre.

Joint Clackmannanshire Citizen of the Year, Gary Richardson, who is also a member of the HCA committee, has written to each of the four councillors for the Clackmannanshire South Ward, expressing his shock at the news of the funding cut.

He said, “I remember as a newcomer, Hawkhill Community Association made it plain to me and the Alloa Park Resident’s Association, that “our centre is your centre”, and that sums up the whole ethos of the work that is done there.

“There is a tremendous commitment to social inclusion that will be a tragic loss to the area if the centre is forced to close down.” Maria Malcolm is project manager at Play Alloa, a charity which provides a wide-range of services for children and adults with disabilities and additional support needs from its base at the centre.

She has pledged her support to HCA and has been vocal in her deep concern about the detrimental impact that the cut in funding to the association would have on Play Alloa, and the many groups that use the facility.

She said, “The loss of the Hawkhill centre would, without doubt, be devastating to the area as well as to the children and families we support. Over the past two years, that we have been based in the centre, I have seen a massive increase in community involvement. People from all backgrounds are coming together and making their community work.

“We have seen peoples’ understanding, compassion and support surrounding disability issues improve and have been incredibly impressed with the dedication and hard work carried out by members of the local community who have previously not had the opportunity to do so. The closure of the centre would obviously impact significantly on Play Alloa as we would be without a base and I would urge the local authority to consider all the options available to them to allow the centre to continue to thrive.” Kelly-Ann Taylor (20), a former service-user, first attended the centre as a child and spent a lot of her teenage years volunteering there.

She believes her time at the centre, her work with other young people and her involvement in different community projects have allowed her to develop valuable life and social skills and have provided her with work experience, all of which have been central to her success in finding employment.

She said, “I really enjoyed going to Hawkhill centre and the volunteering work and I still do when I have the time.

“Looking back, I would say that the knowledge and experience that I have gained from my involvement there went a long way to helping me get a job.

“It would be terrible if young people in the area were deprived of the opportunity to broaden their horizons in the way that I did and this shouldn’t be allowed to happen.” Clackmannanshire Council has said it will continue to support the association in a number of ways.

Practical assistance will be provided to find alternative funding during the transitional period and funding will cease from October.

A spokesperson commented, “The association receives significant funding from a number of other sources outwith the council, and officers are continuing to assist the association to develop this.

“Officers are also assisting the association to ensure that the sustainability of the centre is improved, by exploring ways of developing income generation.”