Bristol community centre enters competition

A community centre in Lockleaze which hosts everything from bowls events to arts and crafts clubs has entered the Evening Post's Building Healthy Communities competition.

The Cameron Centre, which has been running for about 10 years and welcomes up to 150 visitors every week, hopes to win the competition to improve access for disabled people.

The centre in Cameron Walk needs the prize money to pay for two new ramps at fire exits to help disabled visitors leave the building without assistance in the event of an emergency.

Centre manager Emily Moreton, 27, who lives in Easton, said: "The centre runs on-going activities for all ages and abilities, including people with mobility difficulties and wheelchair-users.

"Therefore, we are keen to make the building as accessible as possible for everyone, as participation in the community can help reduce secondary health issues such as stress, increase in mental health problems, alcohol and drug dependency, domestic violence and relationship breakdown.

"This is a particular concern in Lockleaze, which is in the 25 per cent most deprived areas across England, with high levels of sheltered housing and a large disabled population.

"The Cameron Centre is an active and welcoming community centre, providing opportunities for people to be part of the community, make new friends and develop new skills.

"With the provision of access ramps at all exits, these benefits will become accessible to even more people."

The centre hosts bowls clubs, gentle exercise classes, arts and crafts clubs, church groups, weight loss classes and community fairs.

Ms Moreton, who has been at the centre since August, said: "At the moment there is a step outside the fire exits which makes it a bit of a job for people in wheelchairs so they have to be helped out of the building.

"We have between six and 10 disabled people using the centre every week and when we have a community event running we can have quite a few more because there's sheltered housing for people with disabilities down the road.

"Because we are a charity we don't have a lot of funding and I have been saying the past three months that we need to get the ramps. That's why we decided to enter the competition."

The Evening Post's Building Healthy Communities competition, sponsored by Leadbitter, gives community groups and schools the chance to win a share of £16,000 for improvements.

There are three prizes for the competition, of a day's worth of work and materials to the value of £5,000, £2,000 and £1,000.

The Building Health Communities competition is being run in two stages.

The first, which runs until August, will be for everyone from community groups to sports clubs and fitness groups, while the second, running in January next year, will be for schools of all ages.

Entry into the first part of the competition is now closed. A shortlist will be drawn up and published on June 16, and prizes will then be awarded on the basis of the number of tokens collected and returned to the Evening Post by July 10. The results will be announced on July 17, and work will take place in August.