Hartley Centre is a former youth, community and training centre in East Ham that has been closed since October 2015 when the Renewal Programme, a community development scheme, ended its eight year lease of the building. The centre offered the local community a variety of activities including Adult Education Courses.
When the Renewal Programme handed the keys to the centre back to Newham Council the council decided that the centre was not in a good enough condition to lease out again. On top of this, it was deemed not viable for the necessary repairs to be made.
It was found by an independent survey that to make the centre fit for similar use to what it had been used for previously it would have cost £175,000 just for one year. Since the centre’s closure it has cost the council thousands of pounds for security measures and to deal with squatters who occupied the premises.
In May 2016 it was deemed that the safest and most economical approach to the Hartley Centre’s future was to demolish it. The work to demolish the Hartley Centre is set to begin next week.
Newham Council is in the process of developing proposals for the site which meet the needs of those living in the area.
By Alisha Sidhu, Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College
