Forres Community Council focused on the uncertain future of Forres House Community Centre

The future of Forres House Community Centre was on the agenda at a packed-out public meeting.

The building’s potential closure as a cut in this year’s Moray Council budget was top of the agenda at Forres Community Council’s (FCC) monthly meeting last Thursday evening.

The meeting had to be moved from the green room in Forres House to the main hall at Erskine Veterans Activity Centre to accommodate a large crowd which over-spilled into the former hotel’s corridor.

FCC chairman Steve Ferris said the Forres ward Moray Councillors present - Kathleen Robertson, Scott Lawrence and Paul McBain - would not answer questions from the audience but would speak after the public session.

FCC treasurer and local butcher, Graham Murdoch, explained how Forres common good farms were sold by the town council in the early 1970s to pay for construction of the community centre.

“This provided Forres with a great asset that still has monetary and social value,” he said. “Unfortunately the social benefits are harder to quantify.

“The proposal to close has come from Moray Council officers, not councillors. Our councillors would like to see it stay open but they have to justify this to officials.”

Former Forres House community worker and Moray councillor, Lorna Creswell described her 45-year relationship with the building that she still lives next door to.

“When I came to Forres to work in 1980,” she said, “there was an emphasis on young people. However, we’ve since seen 20 years of cutbacks and budget restraints.

“Later, when I was a councillor, we were asked to choose to close either the Auchernack meeting point or Forres House as a budget saving.

“Auchernack was closed and its staff and some services moved into the centre.

“Unfortunately, upstairs - formerly a games space and youth café - is now out of bounds to families as it has been turned into council offices.”

She added: “The first few decades of Forres House were about the community - after-school club, youth club, Hi Jinx summer activities, discos, inter centre competition, subsidised luncheon club and so many more activities. All cut back by Moray Council. The building’s ethos has been spoiled.”

Regular centre user, Emma Ritchie, confirmed just under 4000 people have now signed the petition against closure she started after reading about the proposal in the Gazette. She called for an explanation for a council consultant’s claim that it is underused, then listed the scores of groups and ongoing activities in the venue.

She said: “The centre is an essential resource for our community. This affordable, safe hub is still used and loved across the generations. It deserves investment!”

Mr Ferris fielded questions from the audience and revealed his own feelings about the potential loss.

Highlighting a claim in The Moray Sports and Leisure Review that there are alternatives, he pointed out that nowhere else in the ward has an indoor sports hall of similar size and quality of (sprung hardwood) flooring.

A woman in the audience added that, apart from at the east end of Grant Park, the centre houses the only remaining public toilets in Forres.

Mr Ferris also called for an explanation for a £180k deficit listed in the report.

He said: “Our councillors are discussing the centre at workshops over the next few weeks. Figures for usage and attendance will clearly have an impact.

“The petition shows that nearly a quarter of the town’s population wants the centre to stay open.

“Full council will decide on recommendations then there will be public consultation. We hope our councillors can persuade their colleagues that the centre should remain open by running economically and efficiently.”

Another audience member claimed that usage figures in the review were skewed, having been recorded during covid.

Former Forres House leisure assistant for seven years, Michelle Esson, claimed the council’s Fit Life scheme has a negative effect on the centre’s usage and profits.

She explained: “One person can hire the entire main hall for an hour for £8. And LED lighting isn’t used throughout the building to save money.

“It was common, at the end of my eight hour shifts, to have taken in zero money at the entrance counter.

“The building is always busy but most attendees have Fit Life cards so profit is made through the scheme rather than attendance itself.”

Another woman called for the local authority to include the income from rental of rooms at the centre as council offices.

She added: “There’s no costings for social and educational activities in the centre report. The taxpayer will have to pay for these if they’re lost.”

A fellow audience member again highlighted the impact of the loss of Auchernack.

She said: “The access point for housing, social, community care, families and therapy was moved to the centre to save money. The situation is a disgrace.”

Someone else asked: “If the centre is closed, where will all of the users go? The socially deprived can’t get to Elgin!”

Mr Ferris finished by encouraging the community to continue providing our local councillors with reasons to keep Forres House Community Centre open.

He said: “It’s not definitely closing yet. The community can continue to provide ammunition for our councillors to keep it open during the next stage of the review.”