Over 1,200 individuals have signed a petition opposing the closing of a community center in Leicester.

The St Matthews Community Centre on Malabar Road provides services to families and young people in the St Matthews estate, such as childcare, community breakfasts and classes.

The facility’s owner, Leicester City Council, said that the building could be closed as part of measures to cut £23 million from its budget, and that a decision on its future would be made soon.

The authority also stated that the location was not “sustainable or safe,” with council records indicating that the sports hall contained reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a material that can collapse when it approaches the end of its useful life.

Last year, the municipal council proposed relocating the library to another place on the estate as part of new cost-cutting plans. However, the authorities has yet to decide what will happen to the rest of the centre.

It is located in the middle of St Matthews, which is frequently listed as one of Leicester’s most impoverished districts, according to data by the London School of Economics.

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Amina Mohammed said she might not have been able to find work in education without the centre.

 

“The only reason I was able to do it was because I lived here,” she said.

 

Mohammed studied at the centre while her daughter attended nursery in the area.

She added:

“People did English here; they used to teach maths, they did computing here. A lot of things used to happen here and now that’s going away.”

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Abdikay Farah runs community workshops in the area and urged more people to sign the petition.

“We can easily lose a centre which is very important,” he said.

 

He added: “We have to stand together and protect our community; our neighbourhood.”

 

Zainab Abdi, who helped set up the petition, which has attracted more than 1,200 signatures in 10 days, volunteers at local non-profit organisation Women 4 Change.

 

She said she started volunteering at the centre while she was at university, after the Covid-19 lockdown.

 

“The centre closing down is so disheartening and so sad,” she said.

“I started there, it helped me with my career and I can see the impact it has on the young people there at the moment.”

She added:

“I understand that the centre is not safe at the moment, but they can invest into it.”