Michelle Tedore at the Ingestre Road Community Centre

A CHARITY which has run a popular community centre for decades has blamed high council rents and soaring energy bills for its imminent closure.

Ingestre Road Community Centre in Kentish Town has been run by a small charity for more than 30 years.

Among other services, the charity has worked to provide lunch clubs, community bingo sessions and disability support groups for those living nearby. But in recent years, the cumulative effects of punishing rents, rising energy costs and the lingering impacts of the pandemic mean the charity is now being forced to close.

According to centre manager Michelle Tedore, the charity will hand the keys to the community centre back to Camden Council later this year.

The council will then find another organisation to run the building via a formal tender process.

“There could be quite a big gap between us closing and new people coming in,” Ms Tedore said.

The building, based in the centre of the estate, houses both a hall and a bilingual Anglo-Spanish nursery. The council has pledged to keep the Spanish nursery open throughout the process.

“We’ll be working hard so things flow through continuously,”

Kentish Town North councillor Sylvia McNamara said. “There are formalities to go through, but it will be seamless for the nursery.”

In February, the New Journal reported that the charity was paying £24,500 to rent the building from the council.

“It’s the rent that’s killing us,” Ms Tedore said at the time.

While the council has approved a “social value rent discount policy” that will see rent reductions of roughly 50 per cent for any not-for-profit groups providing services to the community, Ms Tedore said the help is “too little too late” for her charity.

“We were paying [over] £24,000 for the privilege of providing something that the council should be providing anyway,” Ms Tedore said. “I think they need to develop something that puts community before profit.”

Moira Lowman

Moira Lowman, 64, a regular visitor to the community centre, said: “The ladies in the club are really upset, they’re not happy it’s closing at all.”

Ms Lowman said that under Ms Tedore, the charity has built up knowledge about the estate, its residents and those who rely on the community centre for support. “We’re going to lose all that. It just seems such a shame. I can’t believe that Camden are letting it go, just like that. Why can’t we have a forum?” she asked.

Cllr McNamara said while the rent reductions may have come too late to save Ingestre Road Community Centre charity, the policy was now open to other charities across the borough.

“People always wish we stepped in sooner, but the fact is Camden has stepped up and provided additional funding [to support charities],” she said.

“As a council, in 2010, we received £1,200 per person. Right now we receive [about] £300 per person… if we could, we would help more and we would do more. A lot of these situations are regrettable, but there’s nothing we can do.”

Cllr McNamara added the situation would be different under a Labour government.

“Roll on the general election,” she said.

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Councillor Nadia Shah, Cabinet Member for Voluntary Sector, Equalities and Cohesion, said: “I am saddened that the charity which runs the Ingestre Road Community Centre has taken the difficult decision based on their current financial situation to close and would like to thank the trustees and centre manager for their work over the years.

“We are committed to the Ingestre Road community centre remaining as a community building and are making arrangements for local community groups to continue to use it.

“We are here to support all our Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) through these really difficult economic times – and have just renewed our commitment with a £4million per annum grants budget that provide multi-year and project funding and organisational development support to enable organisations to be sustainable.”