A COMMUNITY group will be able to serve people in the Bala area for the next 25 years after its least was extended.

Gwynedd Council cabinet met on Tuesday to discuss the Henblas building, a former council treasury office in Bala, and whether Pum Plwy Penllyn should continue to occupy it for the next quarter of a century.

The “very important” centre is currently used for a host of services including youth advice, domestic abuse, mental health support, care for the elderly and as a centre for several other organisations in the area.

The former council building, which was refurbished thanks to grants awarded to Pum Plwy Penllyn, is leased by the community group for a ‘nominal rent’, far less than the market value of the property (approximately £11,000 a year).

At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, it was unanimously decided that the group should continue to use the building and that the services provided were worth more to the local area than the £275,000 they could have potentially earned over the next 25 years.

Bala councillor Dilwyn Morgan was pleased.

“The development of the Henblas building as a community facility is very important for the Penllyn Community and this arrangement for a 25-year lease will secure further development by Partneriaeth Penllyn facilitating the development of more community activity here,” he said.

“The building which was in awful condition has been developed into an excellent Resource for the area and is in excellent condition.”

Pum Plwy Penllyn now intend to submit a bid for lottery funding to upgrade the remainder of the property and continue to pay the nominal rent for the Henblas building.