Community group hunting again

A popular community organisation is set to become homeless again.

Belfast Community Network, which recently received a Christchurch Earthquake Award, has until April before it must vacate its office at Belfast School. The old classrooms which it occupies is scheduled for demolition.

Since the earthquakes claimed its base on Main North Rd, it has struggled to find long-term office space.

Belfast Community Network manager Lynda Goodrick said the network had thought its transitional building on Sheldon Park would have been built by moving day, but a series of hold ups have left it looking "desperately" for office space.

"The school has been so good to us but they have already delayed demolition once. We are desperately looking for space anywhere in the Belfast area - just for a few months," she said.

"We had a terrible time at the end of last year but I think we are back on track," said Ms Goodrick.

Ms Goodrick said there had been delays in getting the transitional building due to funding.

The network has applied to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust for funding but the process had been riddled with delays.

Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust director Paul Sallow said $980,000 was available for funding transitional community spaces but difficulties had arisen with the proposed Sheldon Park facility because office and meeting rooms were included in the plan.

"The trust looks to fund transitional spaces for communities without meeting spaces and community halls," he said.

The Belfast design has community spaces but also included offices and meeting rooms for the Belfast Community Network, which fell outside of the scope of the trust, he said.

"The initial 120 square metre facility was almost like those temporary classrooms, like a wooden prefab.

"But the Belfast building is a lot more," he said.

"There is no doubt that the Belfast Community Network is a very worthy and well thought of organisation, otherwise we would not even be considering them for a transitional facility - but the trust [CEAT] has to make sure that one particular community is no better off than another," he said.

He said at this stage CEAT were considering funding the community space in the facility but not the office space and extra meeting rooms.

"We are basically looking at funding half of their total space and they will fund the other half," he said.

Mr Sallow said delays in decision making had also occurred due to the original quote being far too expensive and a change in ownership.

"The original quote for the building was around the $700,000 mark but they got it down to about $460,000 now," he said.

"They also changed from the building being council owned to being owned by the Network," he said.

"Our preference is for transitional buildings to be council and they went from council owning it to owning it themselves. If the council owns it then they can pick it up and use it in another community," he said.

Mr Sallow said it was not unfeasible for the building to be built before April.

"Some transportable buildings can be built within four weeks - so April is not impossible," he said.