Councillors have made the "no brainer" decision to support plans for the expansion of a St John’s community centre.

The city council is helping to fund the refurbishment of a dilapidated first floor flat in Comer Gardens Institute, so the Comer Gardens Community Hall can be extended.

£140,000 from the council’s capital budget will be used to fund the project, which will see the flat transformed into a dance studio that can be used by Focal Pointe Dance School, which is the main hirer of the hall.

This will free up the ground floor hall for use by other groups.

Worcester News: Comer Gardens committee members Helen Fowles, Wendy Banks, Kelly Collins, Rhiannon Clarke and councillor Simon Geraghty outside the instituteComer Gardens committee members Helen Fowles, Wendy Banks, Kelly Collins, Rhiannon Clarke and councillor Simon Geraghty outside the institute (Image: Comer Gardens Community Hall committee)

Thanks to the rising cost of construction materials, the estimated cost of the development has gone up to £168,000.

Volunteers at the community centre now have two years to raise the remaining £28,000 themselves.

Rhiannon Clarke, of the community group, spoke passionately at Worcester City Council’s communities committee on Wednesday, March 13.

She said a new group of volunteers had stepped up to run the centre since the pandemic and urged members to back the scheme.

Cllr Tom Piotrowski said it was a “no brainer” to support it, adding: “What can we do to help this project to proceed?”

Cllr Hannah Cooper said: “There are not enough third spaces in the city - these are places that aren’t where you live or go to work or school. It’s vital we invest in third spaces.”

Cllr Neil Laurenson, chairing the meeting, said the project is a “brilliant example of what the Communities committee is all about”.

Helen Fowles, who is on the Comer Gardens Community Hall Committee, said events including dance-athons and cake sales will be held to not only raise funds but to get the community involved.

“The community centre is sort of hidden away,” she said. “Not many people know it’s there, but when we surveyed people they said they’d love to use it, or remembered going to events there years ago.

“It’d be nice to bring it back to being a place for the whole community.”