Wednesday 29 August 2012
St Albans Community Centre opens for business
A joint venture between the International Association of the Lions and the Christchurch City Council has resulted in a
new temporary community facility on the Council owned site at 1049 Colombo Street, St Albans.
Lions supplied a temporary building and collaborated with Council to get a facility up and running on the vacant Council
owned site. This transitional facility, the St Albans Community Centre, is now available for community use for the next
two to five years.
Mayor Bob Parker says “This is a day of celebration. It’s great to see a community get back something that it had lost.
Working in partnership with Lions, we have been able to give St Albans back a Community Centre sooner than if we had to
wait for a permanent building to be completed.”
The site previously held the St Albans Resource Centre, which was badly damaged in the 22 February earthquake and was
demolished towards the end of last year. The transitional Community Centre, now on site, provides a venue for local
community groups and low-level recreation activities such as yoga or drama classes.
Lions District Governor Peter Mechaelis is pleased that Lions has been able to combine forces with the Council to
achieve this. “We wanted to help stressed communities in a practical way. Working with the Council to get this facility
available has been very rewarding. It will be great to see St Albans benefit from this partnership approach”.
Mayor Bob Parker officially opens the site today with Chairman Dr Wing-Kun Tam, the Chairman of the International Lions
Clubs Committee. Chairman Tam will officially hand over the building to the Council and cut a cake celebrating a
successful partnership.
Residents who had been using the Community Centre or residents who would like to use the Centre, can now contact the
Community Facilities Team about bookings (the standard Council fee applies) on 941-8999. The Centre is fitted out with
chairs, tables and a whiteboard as well as kitchen and toilet facilities.
ENDS