New Community Centre

 All sorts of exciting things have been happening while I was away!

First of all, £200,000 has been granted to HADSCAL, the Hay and District Sports and Community Association, by Powys County Council, to fund the first stage of creating a new community centre for Hay.

(the old community centre is now a derelict site on the way into Hay from the English border).

HADSCAL are backed by Hay Town Council, and the site they have in mind is close to the doctor's surgery on Forest Road.  There have been plans for the site going back about 30 years, but this time something might come of it.  The money is to cover the design of the community centre, surveys, planning applications and any other necessary work to get it to the stage where they actually start building.

I've seen a variety of differnt plans for the community centre over the years - at one time there were even plans for a proper stage for plays and other performances, but that plan came up against the problem that it would also be a sports facility, and for some reason it was very difficult to combine sports and non-sports uses in the same building.  

The present plans for the site include a home for the Youth Club and the Dial-a-Ride offices, units for ten business start ups (this would fund the project as it goes on), allotments, an all-weather sports pitch, a "fitness facility", potentially with a swimming pool, and a bike track.

The pot of money being used has been held in reserve by Powys County Council for years.  I remember sitting through Hay Town Council meetings where it was discussed.

 I really hope that this time the project finally goes ahead.