Good News from Fairfield House

Following the meeting held on Wednesday 14 December 2011 with the leader of Bath & North East Somerset, with representation from local councillors, commissioners of older people services, members of the Save the Fairfield House group who represent the Ethiopian and Rastafarian communities, BEMSCA who runs a day service in the house and community supports.

The opening statement by the leader of the council was that Fairfield House was an important bequest to the people of Bath and an important pilgrimage site for people who visited, and for those reasons the council has put a stop to the sale of the house.

The future of the house is to set up a trust to restore it and make it into a community hub. It was shared that the ground is concentrated and this enables it to be use as a venue for the services which is current done by the Rastafarian and Ethiopian gatherings. Also it should be a place for community to meet in a hub for the day centre, celebrations, to incorporate a museum in the building and for it to be supported by the tourist board and included on its buildings of interest for heritage visits.

We see this as a long term project, as the initial setting up will be to address the repair to the building, raising funds for sustainability, a trustee board.

We would like to thank all of you who have supported us to this stage, your messages of support have definitely been heard. We will keep you updated in the next stages of this work, for a trust to support the running of the property.

With thanks,

Pauline Swaby-Wallace
Project Co-ordinator
Bath Ethnic Minority Senior Citizens Association
(BEMSCA)
Fairfield House
2 Kelston Road
Bath BA1 3QJ
Tel: 01225 464165
Email: bemsca@openworld.com
Website: Bath Ethnic Minority Senior Citizens Association