Celebrations at grand opening of Chase Terrace Community Centre

Burntwood Town Council officially opened Chase Terrace Community Centre today with a ribbon-cutting event, celebrating successful efforts to save the building for community use.

Formerly Chase Terrace Methodist Church, the building was purchased and redeveloped by the Town Council in 2023 to create a vibrant, functional and affordable community space for the benefit of Burntwood residents and it’s thriving community and voluntary sector.

Built in 1870, and serving the former mining village of Chase Terrace, the former Church was redeveloped for community use in the early 2000s and the building was then used for almost 20 years as a meeting place for numerous local community groups.

With an increasingly elderly membership along with the impacts of the pandemic, membership declined, and the Methodist Church closed the building as a place of worship in August 2022. However, a group of former Church members along with Burntwood Town Council sought to retain the building for community use and launched a petition to this effect which received almost 1,000 signatures. In addition, an application for the building to be listed as an Asset of Community Value was submitted and approved by Lichfield District Council safeguarding it from development.

In May 2024, Burntwood Town Council successfully applied and were awarded a grant from the UK Government’s Community Ownership Fund, enabling substantial renovations of the building to turn it from a dated church building to a vibrant community centre.

Cllr Sue Woodward, Burntwood Town Council and former member of Chase Terrace Methodist Church said:

“As members of the former Church, we fought long and hard to keep this much-loved building open for community use and I’m overjoyed that it is all finally happening. We are grateful for the support of every single member of the community who supported the project along the way, from signing the petition to declare the building to be an Asset of Community Value to people expressing their interest in using the premises, which convinced the Town Council that this project has legs. Our formal opening is a culmination of lots of hard work by our Town Council staff and our Council Leader, Cllr Darren Ennis. I can not thank them enough.”

Cllr Laura Ennis, Chair of Burntwood Town Council said:

“What an amazing day we have had today at the opening of our new Chase Terrace Community Centre. The atmosphere was brilliant and it was great to see so many people. The building looks fabulous and we already have many bookings in place which start from next week.

I just wanted to say thank you to our amazing staff at Burntwood Town Council for all their hard work and to our leader, Cllr Darren Ennis, who has put a lot of time and effort into this project.

I look forward to seeing Chase Terrace Community Centre used by lots of groups and residents into the future”.

Pictured: Cllr Sue Woodward cutting the ribbon at Chase Terrace Community Centre.