ALTON Town Council joined forces with East Hampshire District Council and Cala Homes at last Wednesday’s electors’ meeting to launch a public survey into what people would like to see in terms of a possible new community facility on the former Molson Coors brewery site.

The development brief for the Turk Street site identifies an opportunity for a new community facility, and residents now have the chance to have their say on what form that could take.

To be a mixed-use site, predominantly for housing but with a hotel, residential care home and business space, one of the key criteria is for it to be a linear park, providing a green recreational space on either side of the River Wey.

The culvert currently covering the river will be opened up and there will be a river walk through the centre of the development, to link the station and Kings Pond, following the river through the town and via Flood Meadows to its source at Willhall Farm.

Also included is a near half-an-acre plot on which to build a facility which could take the form of a replacement community centre or a smaller ‘hub’, to be used as an addition to the existing centre.

Alternatively, this early-stage consultation will ask if there is a greater need for the developer to contribute toward the refurbishment of the existing community facilities in the town, or if the money would be better spent on another area, such as health or education.

It was made clear at the launch that Alton Community Association, which runs the existing community centre building, may not be the only bidders for a new facility which could open up possibilities for others such as Hampshire Constabulary and Citizens Advice to have a more convenient presence in the town.

While understanding of this situation, Alton Community Association chairman Pat Lerew was concerned that the provision of a new community facility on the former brewery site should not be at the expense of the existing community centre.

It was, she said, difficult to get excited over the prospect of a new building after 20 years filled with disappointment as plans for replacement centres collapsed.

She told the meeting: “The proposed site of nearly half-an-acre is not big enough. What Alton needs is a community centre at least the size that it’s got at the moment.”

And she added that a new centre would also need a large car park, not just for staff and deliveries but for centre users.

In making her case for a new centre, Mrs Lerew explained the struggle Alton Community Association has had since the last proposal fizzled out in 2009.

At that time, Alton Community Association had been promised £150,000 from EHDC, which owns the current ageing building, to cover improvements but, while the urgent and short-term improvements had been carried out to the tune of £110,000, EHDC had then “pulled the plug”.

As a result, in recent years improvements that had once been long term had become urgent.

As well as pressures imposed by trying to maintain an old building, according to Mrs Lerew, this year Alton Community Association has been faced with yet more of a challenge after EHDC decided to discontinue its grant funding, only to reinstate it, but for just one year following strong pressure. At the same time, Hampshire County Council had withdrawn its funding for youth provision.

Alton Town Council had come to the rescue and, having already agreed a core client grant, Mrs Lerew picked up an additional cheque for £3,895 at the electors’ meeting which, she said, would support one youth worker for one session per week, enabling the centre to continue, in a reduced way, with its invaluable youth hub work.

In stressing that “we need much more in Alton than it is suggested we do”, Mrs Lerew made reference also to the £200,000 promised to Alton Community Association by EHDC to support youth provision, following the sale of the boys’club on Nursery Road to make way for housing (granted permission in September 2014) - a memory supported by former town and district councillor Pam Bradford.

Mrs Lerew said: “That money never appeared.”

She suggested that while the brewery site may not be able to provide what is needed for a replacement community centre, there was no reason why Cala Homes - appointed by Molson Coors as the “preferred developer” - should not provide funding for a replacement centre on a more suitable site.

Following a second drop-in consultation session at Alton Community Centre on Tuesday morning, a final session will be held on Friday, April 13, at Alton Town Hall, from 1pm-4pm. To fill out the survey online, visit tinyurl.com/altoncommunity. The deadline is April 16.