Press Statement

Leegomery Community Centre's future secured by Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council.

At an extraordinary meeting of the Parish Council on Tuesday 17th December, the decision was made to take on the long-term running of Leegomery Community Centre.

The councillors agreed that the centre provided much needed and essential services for the community of Leegomery, Apley and Horton, as well as people from Hadley and further afield.

Two Councillors voted against the parish council taking over the running of the centre - which risked seeing it close altogether.

With food bank parcels, Models for Heroes Veterans groups, walking groups and a number of small businesses already established at the centre, the Parish Council was keen to support, and also to deliver a period of stability and growth at the Leegomery Community Centre, driven forward by the experienced Community Centre Manager who recently joined Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council.

It was noted that the Community Centre Manager has already managed to increase income at Hadley by 58% and will look to also deliver improvements to Leegomery Community Centre too.

Cllr Eileen Callear (Chair of Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council) said:

“Following a period of temporary management of Leegomery Centre, we were asked to consider taking on the long-term responsibility for this important community asset. We already run Hadley Community Centre, which provides services for the people locally.

We felt that it was important to ensure that the people in Leegomery and Apley received the same level of services, support, and commitment as the people of Hadley do. We absolutely did not want to risk the possibility of the loss of this centre.”

She continued: “In our view, there was no better option than the centre being part of the Parish Councils responsibility, and we look forward to bringing more services and events to the Leegomery Centre.”

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Press Release

Following our recent announcement regarding the sale of Hadley Cemetery Lodge, Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council would like to address some of the questions and concerns that have been raised.

The cemetery lodge had been neglected over a twenty-year period, with just £24,495.84 being spent on its upkeep between 2004 and 2019. It is estimated that the average yearly maintenance of such a building could be around £3.5k (1% of the value), which would total around £50-70k over 20 years). In-fact when the previous cemetery manager moved in, it was already in need of repair. In 2019 the new administration undertook that responsibility, and had the lodge renovated.

This was during Covid, when the council also spent a large amount on support for residents.

We are unable to share information around employment, due to the laws around this. However, we can confirm that over the last couple of years, many of the cemetery duties have been carried out by contractors or external partners. There are lots of rumours around this which are incorrect, but we as employers are unable to address them due to employment law. All work carried out in the cemetery previously, has always been under the guidance and supervision of the clerk, and the council, and we thank ALL previous custodians for their work there.

Multiple possibilities were considered, as to what to do with the lodge moving forward. However, the decision to sell was taken due to it providing the best value to residents, with a definitive payment and ongoing savings on the upkeep of the building, in comparison to potential rental income, and the legalities and risks associated with becoming a landlord.

The cemetery now has limited burial space. It is anticipated that there may be only 8-10 years more capacity, and once full the cemetery will go on to be maintained by the parish. This has informed the decision-making process around how the cemetery is run moving forward. The council believe it is no longer feasible to provide free accommodation for this role to be carried out, and is using other more suitable and cost-effective methods of security, like CCTV to monitor the cemetery. We ask people to remember that most of the councillors also have relatives buried at the cemetery, so it is just as important to them that this is done correctly, and to a high-standard.

Plans for The Chapel at the Cemetery

We would like to reassure residents that the cemetery will continue to be as well looked after and well-cared for, under the new cemetery management plan, as it has always been. We want to share one of the ideas we have around this and we will consult residents on this idea. The Chapel, is a lovely building situated in the heart of the cemetery. We would like to see this building used as the new Parish Office, meaning the Clerk to the Council and the Deputy Clerk would be on site at the cemetery during the working week. This will enable the Clerk to deal with any funeral arrangements and burials on-site - something that the previous cemetery manager had to travel between the cemetery and Hadley Community Centre to do. It would also mean that residents can access the parish office centrally, and possibly make a great community hub for small groups and councillor surgeries. We are looking to take the lodge - which none of our residents have access to, and bringing into use another - the chapel, that will be open and accessible to everyone.

This would also free up two further rooms at Hadley Community Centre - which is also in need of some overdue maintenance, and hopefully improvements like solar panels etc…, to make the building more useable and efficient to run. With the parish office no longer linked to Hadley Community Centre, there would be further possibilities around accessing grant funding for the centre, which is very difficult when the parish office is housed there.

There are lots of projects that residents have asked us to fund, for example Haybridge Avenue play area improvements, more CCTV, road safety schemes and improvements (like the road next to HCC), and lots more. These are the exact kind of projects the proceeds from the sale of the lodge will pay for.

We believe that it is the right decision to sell the lodge. To stop asking residents to pay for the ongoing maintenance of the lodge - free accommodation for one employee- and to put this money back in to invest across the parish for everyone.

Sale of cemetery lodge to fund parish improvements

The cemetery lodge in Hadley and Leegomery is being offered for sale so that the money released can be invested into the wider community.

Cemetery lodges – residential buildings that would be occupied by custodians of the cemetery – were commonplace across England in the Victorian times but are no longer widely used.

In a recent meeting, Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council voted to approve the sale of the Hadley cemetery lodge to re-invest the proceeds into improvements across the parish. The decision was made in a private session due to the link between the use of the lodge and a contract of employment.

In the future, the cemetery will be administered by the Clerks team.

A spokesperson for Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council said: “The cemetery is an important part of all of our lives and we will ensure that it continues to be well looked after, providing a space for reflection and to remember loved ones.

“It is not unusual for cemetery lodges to be owned privately. The sale of the lodge could raise hundreds of thousands of pounds towards projects that will improve our neighbourhood and see the costs of maintaining the building also re-invested into the community.

“We will be consulting residents about how this money used.”