Petition Launched to Keep Sherwood's TN2 Community Centre a Dedicated Community Space

A petition asking local and county councils to keep TN2 Community Centre in Sherwood, Royal Tunbridge Wells, as a dedicated space for the community - rather than handed on a long lease to a third party - has been launched by a local resident and had gathered 79 signatures as of this week.

TN2, on Greggs Wood Road, is a multi-use building comprising a sports hall, a men's shed, a kitchen, a library and community rooms. It's been leased to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council by the YMCA since 2006, with around ten years left on that lease. According to the council's own Cabinet report, use of the centre has declined over roughly the past eight years, a period that coincided with large-scale redevelopment of the surrounding Sherwood estate by Town & Country Housing. The council had explored buying TN2 to redevelop it for mixed use, but that plan fell away amid rising borrowing costs - so instead, Cabinet approved purchasing the freehold outright in December 2025, with a view to granting a long lease, of up to 99 years, to a third-party tenant. The same report notes the move could also help free up value elsewhere in the council's property portfolio.

Petition starter Austra Magerov, addressing it to Kent County Council and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, argues local children and teenagers need somewhere safe, affordable and welcoming after school - "arts & crafts, homework & study space, youth activities, parent & toddler groups, family & community events" - and wants the authorities to see that the community wants the space kept for that purpose. "The community centre should belong to the community - not just have 'community' in its name," the petition reads.

Source: Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Cabinet report, 4 December 2025, Change.org petition