Healthy Living Centre set to close

After careful consideration, The Healthy Living Centre (HLC) in Aylesbury is to close its doors for the last time on 31 March 2023, it has been announced.

The HLC is a community hub focused on supporting the disadvantaged communities of Southcourt and Walton Court in Aylesbury. In addition, it conducts outreach work in the Oakridge and Castlefield areas of High Wycombe and Vale in Chesham.

The centre was established in Walton Court in 2002 in order to support the local community in one of the most disadvantaged areas in the South East of England. The HLC works to improve the health and wellbeing of our community members by offering a wide range of services and activities appealing to different age groups and interests.

The centre’s future has become unviable due to a perfect storm caused by the loss of funding from the European Union European Social Fund following Brexit and changes to Government public health funding. These problems were compounded by a loss of revenue from rooms the centre previously rented out for events but which have become much less popular following the pandemic, as well as other operational challenges including soaring energy bills.

Julia King, chair of the HLC and long-standing Board member, said: “We are devastated that it has come to this but we just cannot see a way out, given the circumstances. We were already struggling due to having lost our EU funding following Brexit as well as the after-effects of the pandemic, but recent operational challenges and sky-high energy bills have been the final blow. We have held out as long as we could for the sake of the community but with the greatest regret have come to the conclusion that we simply cannot continue.”

”I’m proud of what the centre has achieved for people in Buckinghamshire over the past two decades and we are now pouring our energy into making our closure as bearable as possible for our staff and beneficiaries once we cease to operate at the end of March next year. We will continue to fulfil our purpose and support the community until then.”