Carrickvale Community Cafe
Last week I visited the Carrickvale Community Centre to help campaign against council plans to close the centre’s café.
The café was initially due to close on January 29th but the council have given a stay of execution until the end of February.
I am deeply disappointed by the decision to close this vital community resource. Since the community centre opened in 2003, the café has become a well established and well used service in the local community attracting people of all ages and backgrounds.
The café also offers excellent opportunities for adults with learning disabilities giving them on the job training in a variety of food related tasks and allowing them to become more integrated in the community through interaction with customers. There is justified concern amongst the centre’s management committee about where these people would go if the café were to be closed especially as so little notice of the closure was given by the council.
The benefits of the centre and the café were fully demonstrated last week when due to a fire in a nearby block of flats a number of families congregated in the centre on the day the café was due to close. Due to the cafe's stay of execution, those families were able to keep warm and have something to eat while arrangements for temporary accommodation were made. I also want to record my thanks for those generous members of the local community who responded to the plight of these families by donating clothes and toys. The community centre and cafe demonstrated just how important it is to the local community.
I am utterly shocked that the council has taken the decision to cut this vital service without a proper consultation with the centre’s Management Committee or the wider community. These are the people who will be affected by this decision and they deserve the chance to have their say.
As the council did not feel it necessary to seek the views of the local community I have decided to do it for them. I will be back visiting the Carrickvale area this Friday and I will be seeking signatures to a petition calling on the council to reverse this decision.