Visitors to a popular Harrogate community centre are set to get a warmer welcome after the completion of the first phase of building refurbishment work.
Harlow Community Centre is used by over 250 local people every week.
It hosts a wide range of groups and activities including dance and drama, women’s institute meetings, yoga classes, an embroidery club and a Brownie pack
The venue is also hired out for children’s parties and utilised by Harlow Hill Men’s Shed, the local Allotment Society and The Pinewoods Group for meetings.
Known locally as The Green Hut, the building dates back to the early 1970s and had wooden ‘tongue and groove’ cladding to its exterior which was prone to getting weatherworn and which in turn impacted on the building’s internal environment.
Harlow Community Centre Association, which looks after the building, began to look at ways in which this could be addressed as part of a drive towards reducing its carbon footprint and energy usage as well as maintaining a comfortable temperature at all times.
A £2,000 grant from developer the Banks Group together with grants from other sources along with donations and Association funds enabled the committee to commission local contractor Adam Fryer Construction to replace the cladding with fibre-cement panels that will do a much better job of keeping the heat in and the weather out.
All of the outdated wall insulation has also been replaced.
John Hart, chair of trustees at the Harlow Community Centre, said:
“The community centre isn’t cold as such, but we want people who might be sitting down for a couple of hours to know that they’re always going to be comfortable while they’re here.
"The original cladding had been in place for a long time and the changes we’ve made to the exterior are going to make a big difference to the building’s fabric, its interior temperature and the amount of energy we need to use to keep that temperature steady.
“We already welcome hundreds of local people through the doors every week, but we’re hoping that, as word spreads about the work we’ve carried out this year and the impact it’s had on the venue, we’ll see more visitors coming along to take advantage of everything we offer.
“Taking on a big capital project like this was a financial challenge for a small community organisation like ourselves and we’re very grateful for the funding we’ve received which is going help make a big, long-term difference to local people’s experience of the time they spend in The Green Hut.”
Work on fitting modern insulation throughout the building’s interior is now being considered.
The Association hopes that, once all the proposed works are completed, a more pleasant environment within the building will encourage more people and groups to make use of it.
Kate Culverhouse, Community Relations Manager at the Banks Group, added:
"A building that’s as well used as the Harlow Community Centre plays a hugely important role in the lives of the people that use it.
“The trustees have taken a far-sighted approach to making sure this important place will be fit for use for a long time to come and we’re very pleased to be playing our part in making it happen.”
The Banks Group’s community funds are independently managed by Point North.
Anyone from a community close to a Banks Group project interested in applying for funding from the Banks Community Fund should contact the company via its website enquiry form (www.banksgroup.co.uk/contact-us/) to find out if their group or project is eligible.
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