Dudleys Consulting Engineers has started works to support in the delivery of a new £3.4 million community hub transformation project in Hunslet, Leeds.

Preparation works have started on the site of the Old Cockburn Sports Hall which is being redeveloped by Hamara Healthy Living Centre. The project will see the demolition of the former dilapidated 1960's building and construction of a new, state of the art, 10,615 sq ft mixed use leisure, health, and wellbeing facility.

Hamara is the largest ethnic minority organisation in the voluntary and community sector in Leeds. Working within the community sector, employing 36 people, Hamara currently delivers several different strands of work including: Health Promotion, Youth Activities, Older People’s Services, Saturday Supplementary School, Learning Disabilities, Education and Employment & Training Programmes.

The new Cockburn Centre is to become a sustainable local community business which operates for the benefit of local neighbourhoods. It will be led and operated by adults with learning disabilities and supported by local volunteers.

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New facilities will include a multi-use sports hall, fully accessible changing facilities, equipment storage space, an external hard surfaced multi-use games area, a seated café, community hub, halo and training room, a viewing gallery, and offices.

Hamara has worked tirelessly to secure grant funding from various parties, including The Football Foundation, the Department of Levelling up and Housing and Communities – Community Ownership Fund, to enable delivery of the important community project.

Dudleys assisted Hamara with securing planning consent and is now consulting alongside architects Studio RBA, services consultant Shearstone, project managers Spring & Co, landscape architect Urban Green, and main contractor NU Construction, on the delivery plan which is expected to start this summer. The award-winning practice is providing value driven Civil and Structural Engineering services to include environmental impact from a localised mining history and protected landscape.

Peter Dixon, Director at Dudleys said: "We were delighted to advise Hamara through various civil and structural challenges of the site to secure planning consent for this important community project. Supporting charitable causes is a fundamental part of our business ESG commitment and we have previously assisted on many church community and railway preservation projects. It is exciting to see progress on site for the new Cockburn Centre and we look forward to working with the team to provide value engineered, technical expertise throughout."