Joint effort to restore community room (From The Northern Echo)

Joint effort to restore community room

5:14pm Thursday 9th February 2012 in Crook & Weardale News

WORK is well under way on bringing an old community room back to life thanks to volunteers.

Two kitchen fitters have joined the effort to transform Bedburn Community Room on the Watergate Estate, in Crook, back into a thriving hub of the community.

The centre, which has been closed since 2000, was recently sold by Durham County Council to Mohan Community Services whose founder, Graham Tomaszko, hopes to use the room as a flagship project.

He said: “We want to take these old centres, which are being closed, to save the council money and show that they can been run by the community.

“Bedburn is our first project and we hope to prove how this model can work everywhere.”

The building, which had been badly vandalised, is undergoing a major restoration thanks to volunteers with a view to being open on April 1.

Mark Watson and Matthew Fisk, who run Trinity Kitchens, based in Newton Aycliffe, are giving up their time to repair the building and have also sourced free materials from some of their clients.

Mr Watson said: “Not many people do things for nothing nowadays, but this project is all about restoring community spirit, which is why we were only too happy to get involved.”

Mr Tomaszko also thanked several other local businesses including Bishop Auckland Glazing, Ultegra Plastics, Tool Time, LPC plumbing and North Yorkshire Timber.

Volunteers are still needed, visit mohan communityservices.org