No immediate community use for Woodbrooke building
'BVT said that its current priority is to invest in improving its existing homes and buildings, including spending £7.3 million this year on its socially-rented homes.'
The Bournville Village Trust (BVT) has said that the historic site of the Woodbrooke Study Centre will become part of its long-term asset management, with no immediate plans to use it for the community.
In December 2023, the Woodbrooke Study Centre building was handed over to BVT’s care. BVT said that its current priority is to invest in improving its existing homes and buildings, including spending £7.3 million this year on its socially-rented homes.
The Grade 2-listed building on Bristol Road South ‘needs significant investment of around £6m to bring it up to a good environmentally sustainable and accessible standard’, it said on BVT’s website.
‘The Centre will therefore become part of BVT’s long-term asset management and development strategy for the Bournville Estate.’
In the immediate future, the building will be ‘actively managed by BVT’s Assets department’, which will focus on ensuring it is ‘well managed, safe and secure’.
BVT added: ‘We appreciate it may be disappointing that we are not able to bring the building back into community use sooner. However, we are committed to ensuring it remains a valued part of the Bournville community.’
Woodbrooke’s trustees made the decision to close the site early in 2023 due to falling visitor numbers and high building maintenance costs.
