I would like to say how saddened and disappointed I am at the closure of Chapelfield Community Centre.

So much good work has taken place there and we were hoping that this would have been allowed to continue and develop.

As well as helping the elderly, the unemployed, those with disability and parents and toddlers, the community worker had also identified a great need to develop work with those who suffer from dementia and their carers.

Sadly, all of this has had to stop with some groups not having anywhere in this area to go to.

The feeling in the community is one of shock, disbelief and anger that this valuable community resource has been taken away from them.

Many feel that to put a £200,000 price tag on to a building they feel they have already bought once was an insult, and it looks as though the Methodists are only interested in how much money they can raise from its sale.

Our only interest was to keep the building open as it has been for the past 27 years.

Some have thought that we may have been trying to profit from buying Chapelfield at a low price and then selling it later at a much inflated price.

This was never our intention. Indeed, we would have been happy enough to have had a written clause that with any future sale of the building all monies would have been returned to the Methodists.

The Methodists may have legality on their side, but morally and ethically they are so wrong. Shame on them for abandoning this community.

Rev Linda Riley-Dawkin
Vicar of St Michael’s with St Thomas, Ditton