For nearly six months, and in many different buildings, the Black Cat Centre has been providing the people of Bath with a free community centre space. In that time, the centre has been used by hundreds of members of the community, and runs dozens of workshops, meetings, cafes, gigs, skillshares and other activities each week as well as being a permanent home to Bath FreeShop and the Really Radical Lending Library. The massive support and use the centre has received is a sign that we are filling a vital gap in Bath's sense of community. We provide what the Council doesn't - a space for the community both providing valuable resources and activities and more importantly throwing a building open for the community to use in whatever way it sees fit. In this way, the Black Cat answers the specific needs of the community it finds itself in. If the community is lacking a low-cost cafe, someone sets one up in the Black Cat, in communities racked by money worries, the Black Cat has been used to host debt advice workshops etc. We do not want the Council to provide us with activities (which is lucky, coz they do a crap job of it!), we want a space that the community can use for whatever it wants, to answer its own specific needs and desires.
For this reason, we have launched a campaign to pressure the Council to give the Black Cat Centre a permanent home in one of the hundreds of disused commercial properties around Bath. If you think that the Black Cat is an important part of Bath culture, and a useful community resource, pop on down to the centre to sign the petition, and keep your ear to the ground for upcoming protests and events.
