Still no decision on long-awaited Nunthorpe community centre

Politicians had voted for the new £966,000 community centre to go on Stokesley Road, rather than at the Nunthorpe and Marton Playing Fields Association (NMPFA) on Guisborough Road. Now they will be asked to reconsider it after a unanimous vote by Middlesbrough Council’s overview and scrutiny board.

NMPFA chair James Hayton said the not-for-profit charity had 1,500 users weekly and years of experience running a community facility with about £35,000 overheads a year. He told the board: “We’ve already served the community and have done for 60 years.

“We are sustainable. I just don’t even know why we’re even having this conversation.

“We’re community-owned, community-run, community-focused. There are very few of our type of facility left in the UK.”

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He said their organisation “won” at first in the process, but this was changed and residents were asked where the centre should be located. A majority of 369 responses favoured the Stokesley Road site, preferred by the parish council and community council.

My Hayton pointed to “faults” in the consultation like a lack of checks on information. He said: “If you have 20 devices in your house, you could do it on any device. You could print off your own form, fill as many as you want in, go to a local point and hand it in.

“It just seems to us that we won the first process. We don’t go back and revote and revote and revote until somebody gets the result that they want.”

Explaining the executive’s decision, Councillor Eric Polano said: “It’s a contentious issue. There are clearly two options here that have been considered for the community centre.

Executive Member for Regeneration Cllr Eric Polano

“Both sites have been looked at and the community canvassed for their opinion. The executive were happy that the site off Stokesley Road is the best option and the community seemed to agree. I supported it because I believed it was a reasonable outcome for the council.”

Richard Horniman, the council’s director of regeneration and culture, said the only issue decided was where the new community centre should go, not who would run it. He said officers considered the pros and cons of the two potential sites and local people were asked in a consultation.

He added: “We were very clear it wasn’t a vote. This is about collecting people’s views.

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“If you read through them, they’re fairly balanced. There’s a lot of good things about each site. But overall, they came out in favour of the Stokesley Road site.

“There’s been no evidence of tampering, there’s been no evidence of it being hijacked by anybody, there’s no evidence of any poor governance or bias. All we’ve done is gather the community’s views.

“People were asked to express a preference, but they were also asked to express all of their pros and cons. It wasn’t a simple binary choice that people were given.”

The site next to the doctors' surgery

Mr Hayton responded: “But it was presented that way. You can’t do that.

“We won the first process where all those things were ironed out. Everything was ironed out.

“We’ve already had processes prior to this where we were successful. Because we won, it seems that wasn’t the favoured outcome and then we went back and voted again and again and again, until we are where we are.”

He added: “You said you only received 24 collected in and 14 postal votes. I actually printed off 50 and put them in the club and people filled them in, so there’s an issue there. You didn’t have control.

“I know those 50 were delivered in. Where did they go?”

Mr Horniman answered: “I can only respond to the ones that we’ve received. If people have taken surveys or questionnaires and filled them in, what happens to them after that I’ve got no idea.”

Cllr Jim Platt said: “You had 369 responses and roughly 220 people agreed with it. In my opinion that’s not enough for you to say, ‘Yes we’ll go with that one.'” Mr Horniman said letters went to every resident and the level of response was not uncommon.

Board chair Cllr Michael Saunders said: “There does appear to be some ambiguity in how the process was carried out, whether it was indicated as a vote and residents voted for their views on the building itself. I do have some doubts about that.”

All members of the board voted to send the decision back to the executive. This will be considered within ten working days.