By KATH GANNAWAY
A WARBURTON business woman is calling for a re-think on the Cerini Centre.
The Mail reported last week that the future of the building, constructed in 1952 as a Catholic primary school and under community management since it closed in 1992, is back in the hands of the Education Department.
Belinda Lloyd, who runs Warburton Yoga and Mindfulness in the main street, believes the building has a future as a community-run space that could combine commerce and community use.
She has to vacate the building she has been using for the past three years in October, and says her business and others, are looking for a new home.
“The Wellspring, which houses over a dozen small, ethical businesses and not-for-profit organisations in any given week, has been a successful hub, financially viable and offering high-quality services to the community,” she said.
The businesses include yoga, kinesiology, low-cost psychology and counselling, among others, and has a low-cost studio venue available for meetings, workshops and guest speakers.
“Given the planning zones in place in Warburton, there are very few options for operating such a venture, a venture so well-suited to the nature of Warburton and well-supported by the community,” Ms Lloyd said.
Ms Lloyd said unless they could find an alternative venue, their collective will cease to operate at the end of the lease in mid-October.
Another resident, Ivor Wolstencroft, has also expressed an interest in preserving the building for community use, saying he would like to see it used as a pop-up gallery.
Ms Lloyd said the Cerini Centre Committee (now defunct) sounded her out some months ago on the possibility of moving Wellspring into the centre, but eventually rejected the idea saying it would not be possible to offer a lease in the face of the complex web of ownership and other handicaps associated with the ownership and upkeep of the building.
“I feel it’s not too late (to return the building to community use) but feel we are not hearing the full story,” she said.
“What is the big hold up that made it impossible for this committee of well-connected, hard-working Warburton people to continue,” she asked.
The Education Department told the Mail last week that no decision had been made on the future of the building, but said if it was no longer required for education purposes, it must be sold.
Yarra Ranges Council also has an interest in the property as owners of a small part of the land.
Spokesman for the former committee of management, Peter Summers, said any proposals for the purchase, or lease, of the building now rested with the Education Department.
Is it too late for the Cerini Centre to be kept in community use? Email editor@mailnewsgroup.com.au, write to Mail News Group, 244 Maroondah Highway, Healesville, 3777, or post on the Mail Facebook page.
