A MOVE to transfer the ownership of a day care centre for the elderly in Sutherland has been approved by Highland councillors.
The Kyle Centre in Tongue will come under the control of the community-led Kyle Centre Organisation on 1st April for a nominal price.
Currently owned by Highland Council the facility, which has three full-time staff, is well used but few OAPs actually need the village centre for day care and new referrals are rare. A lunch club is in operation during the week.
The Kyle Centre Working Group, which has applied to become a charity, came up with ideas to develop it as a "well-being hub" and the council has agreed for it to take over the running of the centre.
Current users would still use the base but it would also be opened up for a broader section of the community, including young people and families and vulnerable groups.
A community garden is planned, along with "inter-generational" activities and learning opportunities by the group.
Bill Alexander, the council’s director of social work, said the centre had been established in 1995 providing day care for 16 elderly people and had become an important asset to the community.
He said it provided an excellent opportunity for a community-run centre to be created which would meet "informal care and social needs" instead of continuing as a registered social work service and save cash.
Mr Alexander told the local authority’s resources committee – which backed the recommendation to transfer ownership at a meeting in Inverness on Wednesday – that it was the sort of service which could be run well by a local group.
Committee member and local councillor Linda Munro (North, West and Central Sutherland) welcomed the move and called on her colleagues to back the transfer. "It is a win-win situation," said Councillor Munro, who added the facility would be opened up for a wider section of the community.
Staff will be redeployed by the council which will also pass on the building’s furniture to the community group.
The centre’s running costs are £102,000 a year but the community group’s business plan aims to use only 75 per cent of that cash which would save the council £27,000 in the first 12 months.
