Planned new kitchen at EOCC

There are loads of factual inaccuracies in this which I will clear up when I've had a coffee, but...

What are all these threads actually trying to achieve? There are some points about
a) the existence of the kitchen
b) the siting of the kitchen
c) a tree
d) the future of the community centre

and I'm not sure we're looking genuinely at anything useful around any of them.

I know this is a discussion board and it's up to people to just discuss what they like, but pooling ignorance on this matter doesn't seem to be a very productive use of such a great resource.

I've heard of other people getting new kitchens but wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't read about it on Indymedia. I, myself, was thinking of getting a new chair, possibly, a stool - Hey i might even make one. I could get some bits of scrap and have a truly autonomous recycled chair. I don't like shopping in Argos. I don't like shopping full stop. But then ig I had a nice chair maybe I would just sit. And write rubbish. is this a fucking newswire or what.

ps we have all your IP addresses logged.

This is obviously not someone's domestic kitchen, but an important community resource for the people of East Oxford. By discussing it on indymedia, a process which has been hidden from many people in the community is being aired openly. I, for instance, who regularly attend functions at EOCC, was not fully informed of the two sides of the argument. By reading indymedia, I am getting more information.

There is a tension currently between the development of a local indymedia, which should deal with precisely these issues of local interest, and the fact that every news article is currently archived on indymedia uk. I understand that this will be resolved soon, by letting posters choose if they want their articles to go national or not. I assume the above contributor is not from Oxford, and therefore it's not of much interest to you. But what is absolutely outrageous is your last comment about "IP addresses being known". Well, as a moderator of this site, let me respond. If you try to stifle legitimate discussion on this imc with such sinister threats in future, your comments will be hidden straight away.

There seems to be a lot of people saying that they feel like they do not have a good understanding of the arguments which have gone on with the development of the kitchen and other things at EOCC. This is fine, particularly where people are local to the centre, but I wanted to make a couple of points.

The first is that it is down to the Management Committee to involve the members and let people know what the plans are. It is also the responsibility of the local community to get involved with this committee and recognise that they are volunteers with limited time and experience. Any member of EOCC can join the MC - for all those people who claim to be so interested in the kitchen I would suggest you do this. There are some posts on Indymedia which are from MC members and I would suggest that these do not represent the facts and discussion which has gone on so far and as such are somewhat mischievous and unhelpful; ref my post on the ‘cherry tree’ thread. It is the MC’s duty to support EOCC in achieving its charitable aims and objectives, not to push their own agenda.

The second is that just because you as an individual did not hear about something does not automatically mean that there was no consultation. The kitchen proposal was originally written in 1998, and, during the main consultation period in 2000-2001 there were numerous meetings which involved all the on-site partners and user groups as well as street work with the wider community. One of the main issues with the kitchen has always been the amount of time it has taken to actually get going, and the fact that the constituency of people using EOCC changes over time, with people expecting to be brought up to speed on all the issues.

As I said before, debate is good but I am unclear as to what people want to achieve with this discussion. Building work will be going ahead in the next week or so, and if this doesn’t happen, NOF (the main project funders) will pull the money. This will have disastrous consequences for EOCC and possibly the Cowley Rd as a whole.

If people are as concerned about EOCC as they claim to be on this issue I suggest you get involved with managing it in the future.

I'd like to say thanks to Becky for her comments on this thread. One of the reasons this is being discussed on indymedia so late in the day is that oxford imc didn't even exist when the kitchen development process started, so there's a certain amount of catching-up to be done. The fact that controversy still rages about the kitchen means that it will still be debated here, even if the building work is a fait accompli.
As Becky says, the best thing for East Oxford residents who care about this and other aspects of the way EOCC is run is to join the East Oxford Community Association. For the registration form, see my post on the newswire:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/oxford/2004/10/298705.html

Surely the most important thing about the EOCC kitchen is the risk of losing all the funding that has been made available for it and, as a consequence, risking the future of the EOCC itself. The EOCC has not been doing fantastically in recent months/years and wouldn't it be quite a shame to miss an opportunity to vitalise it? Which, I presume, the kitchen is meant to do.

The cherry tree: a bit of a red herring surely? I don't wish to be callous, but Oxford is hardly a barren concrete jungle, so if there is a good reason for it surely one tree can be sacrificed?

Lack of consultation: I have no idea about the real facts of this, but there seems to have been consultation done at some point, but just it noiw seems an awful long time ago. Unfortunately public capital projects invariably take a long time and, as someone else posted here, you will never get 100% support for a project.

Losing space for classes: This is obviously really bad if it seriously and negatively effects the EOCC's income, but I don't believe renting space to instructors of classes constitutes the best use of community space. I don't want to be flippant, but space for classes should not be all the EOCC is about. The kitchen, IF (and that's a big if) utilised properly could be a real asset to the community of East Oxford. Such an opportunity should not be thrown away lightly.

The funding: apparently this could be forfeited if work doesn't start soon which would be a big shame. More importantly though, the future of the EOCC is assured for 20 YEARS once the kitchen has been funded and built. If East Oxford lost its community centre, whether now or years down the line, I think we'd all be pretty gutted whether we wanted a community kitchen or not.

Ruth

This discussion seems to be concentrating on the EOCC and the effects of the kitchen. The loss of a tree and the extension to the building affects us all in the neighbourhood. Many of us knew nothing about the plans to change the character of the building and the neighbourhood and many still don't. Lots of buildings on the Cowley Road have changed over the years. Spare a thought for us residents who have lived here for years and will continue to do so when planners, officers and politicians move on!