Council hails ‘superb response’ to community asset transfer plans

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

A council has hailed the response it has received to its expanded use of Community Asset Transfers (CATs) to try and streamline its estate and save money on maintaining disused assets.

CATs allow community groups to take over the responsibility for such buildings if they can prove they have a sustainable plan for them.

Senior councillors have promoted the policy as a way to improve Caerphilly County Borough Council’s finances, and also help communities preserve buildings they do not want to see the council close down.

Community groups interested in taking over surplus or unwanted  buildings have until September 30 to submit a business case.

At a recent cabinet meeting, Cllr Nigel George, the cabinet member for corporate and highways, said the council’s “refreshed proactive approach” to CATs was “an opportunity to deliver savings whilst safeguarding valued community assets and in some cases services”.

‘Financial challenges’

He told colleagues “the council is facing significant financial challenges and simply cannot afford to deliver everything which it currently does”.

The council said it received a “superb response” to its latest round of CAT offerings, in which 11 expressions of interest were submitted for various assets.

Those applicants will now have until the end of September to submit their business cases, and the council said it “looks forward to reviewing these proposals and working collaboratively with groups committed to making a difference in their communities”.

Recent CAT success stories include agreements to hand over two council assets in Caerphilly.

Disused public toilets

For one project, a community group plans to transform a disused public toilet building in the town’s Tredegar Grounds into a a new site providing refreshments, play equipment hire, and a unisex toilet with baby-changing.

Supporters said the project would breathe new life into a “local eyesore” and “improve dignity and safety” for residents.

The other project in Risca will give a patch of council land, in Dan y Graig, to a cooperative of local groups, with plans including a honey farm and support for veterans.

The council has also agreed a CAT of a former depot in Rhymney, where a local group plans to open a community gym.

Planning permission for the redevelopment was also granted recently.

However, the move to expand the council’s use of CATs has drawn some criticism from opponents of the move to shut down several libraries across the borough.

The council has encouraged groups to pursue CATs if they wish to save their local library, but the notion of communities stepping in to provide library services risked sending parts of the borough “back to Victorian times”, the secretary of Caerphilly Trades Union Council said previously.

Among the council assets eligible for CATs during the most recent round of offerings are the libraries in Abertridwr, Nelson and Llanbradach – which are among the ten sites due to close down by the end of August as part of the recent cost-cutting decision.