A vacant therapy centre in Cardiff is being turned into a community centre to provide breakfast clubs and other services. The permanently-closed Cardiff and Vale Therapy Centre on Splott Road, on the boundary between Splott and Adamsdown, will become the new home of a volunteer group currently based in the Old Library on Singleton Road.
Formerly used as a leisure centre and library, the two-storey building also known as the Star Recreation and Community centre was last used as an NHS therapy centre for physiotherapy, rehabilitation and occupational therapy and as a Covid-19 mass vaccination centre. The NHS no longer needs it and the temporary permission given for its use as a therapy centre has expired.
The Splott Community Volunteers group since approached the council for permission to use it to provide services including breakfast and lunch clubs, a food bank, a meeting space, and to provide free books and the use of laptops and craft materials. A lottery funding bid has been put in so the centre can employ two members of staff.
Read more: 'How I walked away from that I don’t know': The miracle of the postman caught up in huge explosion
Planning permission has now been granted and the group has signed a lease with the council. Volunteers have been helping the group move in to the new venue, with the first breakfast club set to go ahead on the morning of Thursday, March 23.
Roxanne Bainbridge, Splott Community Volunteers' project manager, told WalesOnline the new venue was "really important" for members of the community who have become isolated. She explained: "We are close to the city centre but it doesn't necessarily mean everybody is going to go there.
"A lot of provision has left the community and we're trying to bring that back and bring the community feel back. In the past few days we've had 40 volunteers come down and give an hour or so, which shows the passion in the community.
"The new building means that we can stay open longer, we're not having to pack away and constantly move stuff. It means we can be here and really start to have our own presence in the form of a building - people can have somewhere that we already know, and where they can always be welcome. We look forward to putting on activities and different groups for the community."
According to documents seen by the council, the group's 18 volunteers provide services for "between 50 and 80 people" and with additional staff could provide three breakfast clubs per week and a clothes shop where donated clothes could be bought for low prices. It was also proposed that the hall could be used as events including a Santa's Grotto at Christmas and music nights for local people.
The building was given planning permission on Thursday, March 16 and volunteers have been moving in to the centre over the past week. No external alterations to the building are required, but internal works could now be carried out to fit sinks and workspaces in the kitchen.
READ NEXT:
Drivers furious at charges proposal for M4 and A470 make key point
Mark Drakeford repeatedly refuses to match England's free childcare commitments
'I was treated like I had lost my child when they were diagnosed with Down's syndrome'
Welsh National Opera worker who struggles to read and write loses his job unfairly
