Peasedown St John’s new Hive Community Centre has been awarded a total of £63,000 in funding, thanks to a series of grants from several organisations.

The village’s former youth centre is now run by a team of volunteers, from both the local community and churches. On Saturday, 8th February the Centre will be open 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for all residents to see the facilities available and for the team to hear from people about the kind of activities they would like to see happening.

Last month, Bath and North East Somerset Council announced that they were giving a thirty-year lease to the new group to run the building, which will include two sessions of open-access youth work each week for teenagers.

Steering group Chair, Joy Fraser, said: “Our vision is to be the centre for excellence for community activities and events in Peasedown St John and surrounding areas and to be the first choice for those planning activities, events, training and meetings.

“We want to provide a safe environment in which members of the community of Peasedown St John, of all ages, can be encouraged to realise their maximum potential.

“And now, thanks to a starting budget of £63,000, we are well on our way to achieving this!”

The funding has been allocated, collectively, by the St John’s Foundation, Sperring Charity, Bath Boules Trust, Beatrice Laing Trust, Awards for All, Rank Foundation, Curo Group and Quartet.

Joy added: “Some of the funding is for core staffing costs, and the rest is for the building.”

The primary purposes of The Hive project have been two-fold:

• To secure the long-term future of the Youth Hub building and develop it as a community centre for the residents of Peasedown St John.

• To provide a community facility for residents to use

for sports, education, leisure, youth work, well-being and for service providers to meet with local residents.

Later in the spring, Bath and North East Somerset Council will be transferring the building as a Community Asset Transfer to the Hive Management Committee.

The Hive Community Centre is located next to Peasedown St John Primary School on Bath Road (BA2 8DH).

For more details about The Hive, contact Joy Fraser: [email protected] or: 07947 008042. You can also follow The Hive on social media at: www.facebook.com/ HiveCommunityCentrePSJ