Hawkhurst parish Council has submitted a planning application to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council [TWBC] for a building to replace Copt Hall, which the parish council says has become too costly to maintain.
The new building will also replace the existing sports pavilion and three storage garages at the King George V Playing Field.
The proposed community centre will include a 220-seat hall, a smaller 50 seat hall, meeting rooms, a parish office, cafe, kitchen and changing rooms.
The £3.5million project will be funded from Hawkhurst Parish Council reserves, proceeds from sale of the existing Copt Hall site, funds linked to Copt Hall, potential section 106 contributions from housing developers, as well as grants and money from the Public Works Loan Board.
It comes just as Paddock Wood Town Council finally got the go ahead for its £3million community centre.
That project caused strong objections in the area over its planned location on Memorial Field in the town.
A protest group, Friends of memorial Field, tried to block the development, the plans for which were first drawn up in 2014.
The campaigners claimed the building will deprive the area of green space used to play cricket and would cause parking issues in the town.
Over the years they raised petitions, held and won a ‘non-binding’ local referendum, and applied to Kent County Council to designate the field a Village Green, although the application was rejected.
Sport England also objected to the Paddock Wood centre, telling planners that the town council had ‘not demonstrated that the part of the playing field to be lost – 11 per cent of the total – is surplus to requirements’, although these concerns were also dismissed.
Hawkhurst Parish Council had tried to build a community centre in 2012 on The Moor, but objections to the site led to the project being dropped.
It is not known whether the planned location on King George V Playing Field will cause any local protests, but the parish council says its feasibility study had shown it to be the only suitable location.
