Suffolk: New community hub will use recycled containers

Woodbridge Climate Action Centre is planning to create the 800sq ft centre in Elmhurst Park, Woodbridge, which will provide a base for council services, as well as the climate action centre's own activities.

The plan is for the centre and town council to work together to provide educational programmes around the climate crisis, on-site workshops, a walk-in centre providing mental health support and a learning centre for schools and other user groups.

Elmhurst Park in Woodbridge will be hosting the new facility. The park is perhaps most well-known for the staging of the Elmfest music festival, pictured here (Image: Archant)

Town councillors were due to visit a number of potential locations for the facility within the park, before deciding on their preferred site at a meeting on Tuesday.

However, rather than having to buy recycled containers, the centre has been offered a home that has already been used to house a medical and community facility in London, known locally as 'The Green Box'.

Eamonn O'Nolan, chair of the climate action centre, said the venue would be similar to a cafe made from a recycled container called The Rec Cafe at Stowmarket recreation ground in Finborough Road.

He said: "It is not a big building, but a very useful room and basically, we will be using it for all kinds of community-focused activity which are focused on climate change and getting Woodbridge ready to adapt to climate change."

He added the aim would be for the hub to operate sustainably with solar panels providing electricity, rain water harvested from the roof and composting toilets.

These provisions will mean there is no need for the centre to be connected to the mains drainage.

Four potential sites are being considered within Elmhurst Park, including an area known as 'Scouts Corner' which has had problems with anti-social behviour, and a location close to Fen Walk.