PROPOSALS to demolish The Place community centre in Basildon comes as council documents reveal it cost nearly £500,000 to run per year.

Basildon Council has proposed the building should be torn down and replaced with a new centre with library, community spaces for sport and clubs and up to 36 flats as part of the second phase of the Pitsea regeneration scheme.

The plans come as the authority plans to be ‘self sufficient’ amid “unprecedented” reductions in government grants.

The council says it will receive 81 per cent less by 2019, on top of the 52 per cent it has lost in the past five years.

As a result, its budget shows an increasing gap in its finances, expected to be £9million in four years’ time.

A specialist team will be set up by the council to make the savings it needs, costing around £250,000 a year.

It intends to offset the cost for two years against its own financial reserves, and will then aim to become self-financed from 2018/2019 onwards.

Despite budget fears, the council intends to press ahead with the second phase of Pitsea’s regeneration scheme. Proposals for the town are set to be discussed at a cabinet meeting next Thursday.

A report on the scheme reveals The Place, which houses a gym, day centre for over-50s and is regularly hired by clubs and community groups, costs approximately £445,000 a year to run and a backlog of repairs could cost up to £1.3million.

Terri Sargent, cabinet member for environment and community, said: “The building is pretty old now and has all sorts of problems with the roof; you fix one bit and then another bit has a problem.

“It’s quite high maintenance and we have the running costs as well and although we do hire it out to groups, it still costs the council quite a bit of money.

“There’s very little return to the council, it’s only by the way of what they use on the private hire side. That’s one of the main reasons it’s been included in the next phase of the plan.”

A public consultation into the proposals will take place as the plans progress following Thursday’s meeting.

Ms Sargent urged residents to take part when it opens and said: “I would encourage residents to speak up and have their say, to start using the facilities and say you want services to keep going.”

Stuart Sullivan, councillor responsible for resources, added: “We are proposing quite a large community space to be incorporated within the plans. It will also boost the town centre and give us some much needed housing.”