Further to the announcements made by St Luke's Parochial Church Council (SPCC) on the Church Youth Centre Land, Sway Parish Council (SPC) would like to clarify our position.

SPC strongly supports the continued presence of a community building on the site, at the heart of the village. Our lease of the land comes to an end in 2029; in recent years this has affected our ability to invest appropriately in the building which we feel is no longer fit for purpose. As you will be aware, we have been keen to ensure that the views of the wider community are considered in any decisions made, and we therefore held a joint resident engagement event and exhibition earlier this year. We presented two options for the Youth Centre building, both of which involved acquiring the freehold or a long leasehold interest in the land, so that we could enhance/extend the existing building or replace it, with the aim of creating a financially and environmentally sustainable multi-generational community centre that would enhance the aesthetic of the village.

SPCC has instead proposed a new 10-year lease of the land, currently without defining any detail or specific terms. This short-term lease will be a liability for SPC, rather than an asset, which means it will not be possible to raise grants or Public Works Funding.  Any expenditure on the building would have to be paid for by taxpayers, with no asset to show at the end of the ten years. The likely consequence is that there will be no significant functional, aesthetic or environmental improvements to the building over the period. In particular, we are concerned that the issues raised by the youth of the village in the initial consultation will not be addressed in any way.

Notwithstanding our reservations as outlined above, and in the interests of co-operating with SPCC to move this forward, we have written to them this week with the terms under which we feel that, if supported/preferred by the residents of Sway, a new 10-year lease could be considered. We have also presented another option. We have requested a meeting with the PCC to discuss this in detail, and we will share the outcome of these discussions and any other updates as soon as possible.