Kuumba Centre chair vows to stay put in face of eviction threat

The chair and board of a community centre in St Paul’s have vowed to stay put despite the council serving them with a notice to leave.

Bristol City Council says Kuumba Project Ltd (KPL), which runs the Kuumba Centre on Hepburn Road, is occupying it without a valid lease or consent.

Converted from an abandoned ink factory into a community centre in 1974, Kuumba provides a service for people in Bristol of African and Caribbean descent.

The council served KPL with a notice to vacate the premises by September 28, but supporters voted to keep the current board in place at a community meeting the previous night.

On September 28 supporters also gathered at the centre in case bailiffs arrived, which they didn’t.

The council has warned the next step will be to commence possession proceedings.

Once all current legal matters are resolved, the council is also looking at launching a community asset transfer process to seek an “appropriate and responsible” tenant for the building.

The chair and board of the Kuumba Centre are staying put despite being served with a notice to vacate the premises – photo: Charlie Watts

“I’m passionate about the Kuumba Centre, if that’s a crime then tell me,” said Sister Nwanyi, the chair of KPL.

“I’m saying to the judge and in a court of law, I haven’t done anything wrong, you’re not going to sentence me if I’m innocent.

“I tried my best, I could have done more if I had the resources, I could’ve done more if we had more skilled people on our board.”

KPL, represented by Sister Nwanyi and two other board members, took over Kuumba in 2010 after the charity previously managing the premises collapsed.

Nwanyi admits there are some “errors here in how we’ve managed the building”.

“There was one crucial part of taking this organisation that we didn’t understand at the time, that was the running governance,” she said.

“When we took over, we started like that but we weren’t getting any money, nobody was telling us to what to do.”

Nwanyi says the board didn’t see the lease for the building until they were first told they were in breach of it in 2022.

She says they also lost their charity status in 2019, due to not submitting accounts, and that some of the tenants in the building do not have rental agreements.

Sister Nwanyi, who runs a cafe space in the Kuumba Centre, says being passionate about the building should not be a crime – photo: Charlie Watts

Council officers also have concerns about the maintenance and condition of the building. Nwanyi says she has previously put in an application for CIL money for repairs but that this was not successful.

Following the recent community meeting, it was agreed to consolidate the board, with a second meeting due to look at the skill base of those who have put themselves forward to join it.

“It’s not the council’s job to appoint community people in their community building, it’s never heard of yet and we are aware of that as community activists,” Nwanyi continued.

“I’ve been working in the community previously for a good 35 years, I’ve never heard of something like this.”

She is also keen that Kuumba keeps its cultural identity, with the Rastafari community in the area having played a leading role in the centre since its formation.

A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: “Kuumba Project Ltd (KPL) currently occupy a council owned property on Hepburn Road without a valid lease and without the express consent of the local authority.

“The council sought an amicable resolution and recently asked KPL to hand back the property by May 23. This was not done and we have now served KPL with a notice to vacate the premises by September 28.”

The council also says all other occupiers of Kuumba have been advised that is not the intention of the council to end their occupation. But there are fears the building could ultimately be developed like the adjacent Carriageworks development.

Main photo: Charlie Watts

Read next:

• Kuumba Centre faces uncertain future
• Carriageworks plans finally approved
• Easton woman charged with murder following stabbing in St Paul’s

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