Beloved community space The Ironworks would be saved from imminent closure if all visitors donated a pound, a community activist has said.

The Ironworks, in Southend High Street, has been fighting to hold out until April when it can receive essential funding to safeguard the future of the community space  with The Ironworks set to run out of funding in exactly four weeks.

However, residents have campaigned harder to get the Ironworks to a revised £17,000 fundraising goal, with a community activist suggesting that if every visitor in January donated a pound to the group, it could stay open.

Community activist, Simon Cross, 59, of Pembury Road, said: “From Monday there are four weeks left, the most black and white terms I can put it in are a cup of coffee analogy.

“The Ironworks attracts over 120,000 people and if 100,000 people donated £1 or bought a cup of coffee at this moment it would be saved, at this moment in time what we need is a concerted effort from the public.

“With the current rate of donations to the GoFundMe, it is getting 20 donations a day, if that stays up for four weeks, that will get them to that milestone, it won’t assure anything, but it gives breathing space.

“There are 65 groups weekly or monthly making use of the ironworks, I have attended 50 events over the past 12 months, there is so much diversity and my personal viewpoint is we have lost so many reasonably sized community spaces, and the council spends so much time talking about how they want to bring in footfall to the high street.

“Look at Brighton and Sheffield where there is a massive community space and lots of businesses, people matter and people carry the day, the council are 51 and the town is 320,000,” Mr Cross said.

Mr Cross added that The Ironworks is a comfortable space for all and “those who go through the doors feel comfortable, there has been a lot of press on the high street, that it is uncomfortable, but most people would feel happy going to the ironworks.”