7. Will the Minister make a statement on the importance of community centres in community development in Wales? OAQ(5)0069(CC)

I thank John Griffiths for his question. ‘Taking Wales Forward’ sets out our commitment to ensure services and facilities support community development. We will promote community pharmacies, strengthen community provision across the NHS, develop community schools and pilot community learning centres, as well as develop a made-in-Wales approach to community assets.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that. Your announcement that you are minded not to continue with Communities First has, of course, created considerable concern, particularly in community centres that are not currently delivering Communities for Work or the Lift programme or other programmes that you’ve stated will continue. So, I wonder, Cabinet Secretary, if you could offer some reassurance that, in the process of considering the way forward for community development in Wales, the role of these community centres in that position will be carefully considered, given that they do provide very valuable services that are very important to local communities across Wales.

I’m grateful for the number of discussions that the Member, and, indeed, Jayne Bryant, the neighbouring Member, have had with me, particularly around Newport. I can’t commit to the future of any programme, and I’ve said very clearly, and I’ve written to all AMs, that I will be making a decision over the coming month, which will be well informed. The issue around Communities First is that it is a tackling poverty programme, so we have to carefully assess the impact, and where it also touches other areas, such as Communities for Work and the Lift programme. I’m very keen that we are able to present a resilient communities programme as we move forward, and I’m not in a position currently to make that decision. However, I’ve noted the Member’s comments, the strong discussions that we’ve had, and the representations that he’s made, and I will give that further consideration as we move forward.

At this time of year I think it’s appropriate to remember that many of our community centres are actually memorial halls and originated, particularly, after the first world war. I was pleased to be able to commemorate Remembrance Sunday in my local community centre, which is a memorial hall in Penparcau in Aberystwyth. Talking to the trustees there after that event, it was clear that they are struggling on occasions to make memorial halls that originated with two world wars relevant to today’s young people, and the way that that community centre can once again be a focus of that local community. So, in your plans going forward, what can you do to both help on the capital side, perhaps, of rejuvenating some of these community centres—although Penparcau has been rejuvenated, I’m glad to say—but more importantly, assisting trustees and volunteers to make sure that the memorial halls of the past are relevant for the young generations of the future?

I’m grateful for the very pertinent question the Member raises today. He’s absolutely right—we should not forget the historic value of some of these buildings, and also the sentimental value and respect that they represent. Of course, we have the programmes looking at a made-in-Wales approach to community asset transfer, but we are in a difficult period of austerity, and we are having challenges on budgets. We have to be very careful making sure that our investments are well targeted. The Penparcau example that the Member raises is great to see—that there are local residents making good use of that facility.