Day Rooms community space in Titchfield could be transformed into an apartment

Day Rooms, Titchfield, is owned by the Earl of Southampton Trust and, prior to the pandemic, it offered a limited number of local residents simple lunches to offer support.

The small community space was costing the trust just shy of £20,000 to run before the closure and they found that Titchfield already have a popular community space in the form of the community centre, which provides a lunch club.

The rooms are extremely small and as part of a consultation on their future use, the trust contacted the Charity Commission, and they asked what would happen if the rooms were closed and how they could continue to support the elderly in the area.

Trustees have visited ten community projects and in total, the trust have donated almost £10,000 to support them.

Frances Knight, chair of the Trust, said: ‘A number of issues were taken into account: The size of the rooms. The current cost of living crisis. The number of people we might be able to help. How to include all of the area we cover, that is the whole of the ‘ancient parish of Titchfield,’ encompassing an area stretching from Warsash to Lee on the Solent. The lack of 1 bedroom accommodation in the area with easy access to facilities.

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‘Taking these headings into account we discovered that a number of communities within our area had also begun addressing the cost of living crisis by setting up lunch clubs and warm spaces. We were determined to help them.’

The trust have been considering turning the rooms, with the inclusion of the office at the back of the building, into a one bedroom flat for someone in the local area.

They commissioned a surveyor with expertise in this area and they were informed that their idea is extremely feasible and the trust is currently in the process of following this through with the hope of adding it to the 19 houses that they already let to people in the village.