We’ve had a busy few months trying to sort our roadmap to re-opening in September; however, we’ve encountered a few hurdles along the way which may prevent us from re-opening as planned.
The Coleman Centre
The Catholic Church have provided our group access to The Coleman Centre for several years and have supported the group; however, it is no longer a suitable meeting place for us as it has been repurposed as a foodbank for the people that need it the most within the community.
The Catholic Church have also advised that they will be charging us business rates going forward – an increase in spending by a minimum of 86%, and loss of access to clean running water and the kitchen area.
As a result of the demolition of the Fisher building by the church we have lost vital storage space, so we also require a replacement storage solution, which would cost 5th Rotherham Maltby over £10,000 which we simply cannot afford.
If our group continued to operate at the Coleman Centre, we would have to drastically reduce the number of young people participating in our section nights by at least 33% due to the decreased hall space.
We currently charge £3 per week, per young person.
- £1.70p goes to The Scout Association (insurance / fees / DBS / capitation etc)
- £0.80p goes to Rotherham District Scouting
- This leaves us with £0.50p per person to:
- pay the rent
- run an activity
- purchase badges (which cost between £0.70p and £1.50p)
- purchase neckers
- pay group insurance
- replace repair and maintain group equipment
A decrease in membership numbers (due to reduced capacity in the Coleman Centre), along with an increase in rents, we will have no choice to increase our weekly subscription fee (which we anticipate will further reduce our numbers).
We have approached Maltby Town Council for two independent asks:
- We have requested to operate from the Edward Dunn Memorial Hall from September.
- We have also requested a long-term lease on the derelict land on Walters Road to fundraise and build a dedicated headquarters for our group that can be utilised by both our group, and potentially others.
We have also approached our local councillors, Simon Ball, Adam Tinsley and Lee Hunter, who support our cause and have written to our MP – Alexander Stafford.
We need your help
We need a new home for our shipping container which houses our camping supplies – ideally with in Maltby, or around the local area.
If our request for the lease on Walters Road is successful, we’ll be able to use that; however, if not, we will need an alternative arrangement.
We’d also love it if you could help spread the word about our group and share your Scouting stories and memories of Scouting on Social Media, our local MP, and Maltby Town Council?
The post An update from 5th Rotherham – 10th June 2021 appeared first on 5th Rotherham (Maltby).
