I am really delighted that Surrey County Council's Cabinet will be asked to agree nearly £1million from Your Fund Surrey towards the rebuilding of Old Woking Community Centre.
The current building, while well-used and supported by the community is a large and inefficient 1960s building. A rebuild will create an efficient, accessible, low-carbon and future-proofed community asset.
Woking College will use a large part of the centre during the daytime for performing arts and art students, while leaving ample space for charitable and community use. The plans include furnishing a community café space to offer local people an affordable, locally sourced, healthy alternative to commercial cafes.
Woking Council is contributing a significant amount of money to the scheme as well and this is a brilliant example of what can be achieved by councils and communities working together. This project means a great deal to me as a former student at Woking College and when I was leader of the borough council, I was involved in working to ensure that it remained possible.
Jonathan Lord MP, who joined my to look around the site yesterday, is also really looking forward to seeing things move forward and the new centre in Old Woking opening in due course.
