A COMMUNITY centre that’s been granted a stay of execution had always been facing a financial cliff edge, a top councillor has said.
The Together Works project in Caldicot, which has transformed a former council building into a base for various community groups, will continue to operate throughout the 2025/26 financial year after additional funding was found.
It had been facing closure as a board, made up of council representatives, the Cardiff Capital Region, Melin housing association and the Department of Work and Pensions, recommended its funding from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund should cease.
However the board agreed to a recommendation from Monmouthshire’s council’s Labour-led cabinet £43,000 that was unallocated in the £2.4 million awarded to the county should be used to keep Together Works running for another year so that it can become financially self-sustaining.
The Gwent Association of Voluntary Organisations is also providing funds to keep staff members in place while Monmouthshire council will continue to provide the building and meet utility bills.
Councillor Paul Griffiths, the cabinet member for the economy, said it had always been the intention Together Works should become self-sustaining after two years but said it had been a collective failure that hadn’t been achieved.
He said: “It has not been managed well by anyone that it has not reached a position where the facility was self-sustaining.”
Cllr Richard John, leader of the Conservative opposition group, asked what practical support the council could offer to secure the future of Together Works.
Cllr Griffiths said it is a “very significant question for the council and the community of Caldicot” and said: “When put in place the Shared Prosperity Fund there was always a danger of putting in place a cliff edge.”
He said support for Together Works will have be managed “better than we have in the past” and its possible the centre’s friends group could take it on but that would require support from the council.
Together Works had been in a “unique position” in Monmouthshire as a community centre receiving revenue support for its running costs from the fund, said Cllr Griffiths.
Monmouthshire’s share of the fund is reducing from £4.2m in 2024/25, which Cllr Griffiths said is a reduction of 46 per cent and the same for 17 of the other 22 local authorities in Wales with only the most deprived, of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau Gwent and Neath Port Talbot having the cut to their allocations capped at 25 per cent. The fund is being continued in 2025/26 as a transition year.
Of the £2.4m funding there will be £1.7m available for revenue and used to support schemes for young people who are not in education or training, adult education programmes and the Multiply adult numeracy campaign which councils no longer have to fund. Cllr Griffiths, who chairs the board, said he was pleased with its recommendations.
Of the capital funding for one off costs £209,000 has been unallocated and there will be an open bidding process which council departments and other bodies can bid for.
The Shared Prosperity Fund was introduced by the previous UK Government as a replacement for “structural funds” previously provided by the European Union and Cllr Griffiths said when Britain was in the EU the cash was distributed by the Welsh Government.
The Chepstow councillor said: “We can look forward to a time that reverts back to the Welsh Government but that will not be until 2026/27 on current plans.”
