A CHARITY cafe hub has been left homeless following the closure of the community centre where it was based.

The Freshbrook Community Cafe had just bought a new £1,000 cooker and repainted its kitchen when it had to abandon its base at the Freshbrook Community Centre last week.

The centre was forced to shut its doors after The Freshbrook Community Group, which ran the facility, had its charitable status removed.

The Charity Commission withdrew status on September 11 after the group failed to submit its accounts.

The community cafe, which ran every Wednesday, was temporarily based in the Freshbrook Evangelical Church yesterday, but that was a one-off.

The cafe’s co-chairwoman Tina Mackie said: “There is nowhere else for us to go.

“We can serve 80 meals during our morning of opening – and coming to the cafe is the only time some people might go out.

“My phone is constantly ringing with people asking when the centre will re-open.”

The cafe’s other chairwoman Carol Gibbon said: “We are looking at any possibility at the moment. We have all the equipment but we need to find the right premises.

“We have just spent a year’s profit on a cooker and we don’t have any money to hire anything else.”

Members of the community met at the Freshbrook Evangelical Church to try and decide what can be done to resurrect the centre.

A number of groups running bingo, dog training, martial arts and dance lessons have all lost their venue.

Freshbrook Church youth and schools worker Dave Davison said: “Swindon Council aims to bring the community together with its Connecting People, Connecting Places strategy but keeping the centre closed flies in the face of that.”

Millbrook Primary School headteacher Clare Griffin-Felton has been collating a list of groups left homeless by the centre closure.

She recommended setting up a steering group to find a way forward.

She said: “We want to be involved and help bring this together. I want to explore all the avenues.”

Jenny Sullivan, of The Sullivan School Of Dance, has been forced to cancel lessons this week due to the centre closure but will be able to use Millbrook Primary School facilities next week. She said: “Hopefully next week I will be able to start at Millbrook.”

Coun Mick Bray (Con, Freshbrook) said: “The centre is the village hall of Freshbrook, that is how I see it.”