Hyson Green Community Center is to get a new occupier after the last tenant was unable to meet the council’s requirements

A prominent Nottingham building off tram lines is to be taken over by a new occupier after the previous tenant failed to meet Nottingham City Council’s requirements. Hyson Green Community Center will house Nottingham charity Himmah after the council agreed a seven-year lease on the ornate building on Gregory Avenue.

Himmah, which operates the city’s largest food bank, focuses on teaching local residents about poverty, race and educational inequities. Since their inception in 2010, the charity has provided weekly hot meals and distributed school uniforms to low-income families as part of their mission to “tackle poverty on our doorstep”.

The building was previously occupied by Nottingham Teaching College, a charity teaching English, maths and IT courses for free. NTC co-founder Jodinger Singh said he was “seeking legal advice after being asked to pay bills for the center he could not afford”.

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Nottingham City Council is believed to have asked the teaching college to cover the running costs for the entire center – estimated at £60,000. The council offered Nottingham Teaching College the opportunity to submit a business case for consideration in 2023, however no such application was received.

Instead, Himmah was confirmed as “financially viable” and agreed to terms set by the council to occupy the building.
Jagdish Patel, head of race, arts and heritage at Himmah, said plans were already in place for how the charity would use the landmark Nottingham community centre.

“We have already undertaken consultation with users and architects, showing them our plans for the building,” Mr Patel said, before adding: “We want to develop the community center into a great local resource that focuses on wellbeing, rights civil, education and the arts.”

Negotiations to lease the building to the charity are now at an advanced stage, with heads of terms agreed, council documents show. The Council is expected to sign off and let the building “at full market rent, assessed by an external valuer”.

Himmah continues to operate their food bank at Forest Court on Gamble Street in Radford and those wishing to get in touch can do so using the contact details on their website.