A COMMUNITY centre is set to close after serving a Rossendale town for almost a decade.

The Mary Hindle Resource Centre in Bury Road, Haslingden, opened in 2000 after community workers spent two years raising the necessary funds to take over the former New Thorn Pub.

This week the user groups, including a video-training and production unit run by Community Action in Rossendale and Lancashire Youth and Community Service which runs a popular youth club, have been told it is to shut at the end of September.

Trustee and acting vice-chairman John Ogley said: “The centre is just not financially viable in its present format.

“Reluctantly we have decided that we can see no way of increasing the use of the centre which will provide an income at sustainable levels to keep the operation viable.

“There is insufficient income in the current national recession to continue operating in the present manner.”

An annual general meeting will be held on August 17 at the centre at 7.30pm to make people aware of what is being proposed.

Radio Rossendale, which is currently seeking a home for its new radio station, has been considering the centre as a prime location.

Project manager Tony Nixon said: “The station had been looking for suitable premises for some time now and the Mary Hindle Resource Centre is the ideal venue at which to base the radio station.

“It’s proximity and line of site to the radio transmitter at Top o’ Slate would enable the station to broadcast to every part of the Valley.”

Haslingden Community Forum secured money from the lottery, North West Development Agency, Rossendale Council and Action for Haslingden, to the sum of £270,000 to develop and equip the premises nine years ago.

The centre was named after the Haslingden woman Mary Hindle, who was convicted of taking part in the Loom Riots of 1832 and was deported to Australia despite inconc-lusive evidence.