We are raising funds to buy Otley Methodist Church to turn it into Otley COMMON, a community hub for the everybody in the town. We need to raise f £871,700 to do this. We have already received a grant of £300,000 from the Community Ownership Fund and we have just launched our Community Share Offer. This is your opportunity to make a simple donation, that will be a huge help for our ambitions. (This is a donation and will be used to cover our operating costs and, unlike share investments, will not be returned if we fail to purchase the building).
CLICK HERE IF YOU WISH TO PURCHASE SHARES
What is Otley COMMON?
The aim of Otley COMMON is simple: "To create a space where the Otley Community can come together to thrive and make good things happen"
We want Otley COMMON to be accessible, multi-purpose space that is widely used by the local community.
The realisation of this project will be a COMMON space for all ages, providing a broad range of essential services and projects, that, together, create a vibrant common and shared space to support the local population to thrive.
The different spaces will accommodate:
• Community and social groups, from uniformed groups to yoga and art classes
• Local small businesses, artists, and start up enterprises
• Co-working space encouraging people to work together
• Large events including music, speakers, weddings
• Theatre and performing arts
• Life-long learning opportunities
• A vibrant community cafe and meeting space
• A showcase for decarbonation and sustainability (both the Common and the cottage)
• A Community Action Hub, run in collaboration with our partners, Otley 2030
A COMMON Manifesto
This is a story about our towns, our streets, our buildings and our community. The spaces and places we all share, should share and need to share. They lead us to a deeper sense of place and connect us to each other.
COMMON places that we can meet, learn, teach, work and enjoy.
Places that make us feel proud.
Places that speak to us, that we have helped create,
we can have a stake in, that we build for the COMMON good.
To create a new history — reinvented, renovated and reimagined.
What our old COMMON buildings can be.
These buildings were never constructed to serve the few, they were created in eras of civic pride, constructed for the common person.
This is our collective commission —
to become custodians of the building, to give it a new purpose, a new lease of life and meaning for the future and value to our town and all of us that live here.
An open building that becomes a beacon, an inviting place for us all to use, to communicate, to comment. A place that combines the wealth of a community, its people, its resources and its spirit. Created from a cooperative approach and a true sense of duty.
The building will be a place we all have in COMMON.