MOATHOUSE Neighbourhood Centre has invited councillors to a fun day to help save it from the same fate as the condemned estate.

The centre, which also caters for the Alton Street, Wistaston Green and Rockwood Estate areas, will be forced to evacuate with the other tenants when the estate is demolished.

Councillors announced that the estate was to be demolished last month after serious concrete corrosion was discovered in all 240 homes.

Staff and local residents are now hoping to persuade councillors to have the centre re-sited.

Manager Olwen Bottomley said the fun day would be to celebrate the centre's 20th birthday.

"We were due to celebrate our 21st next year but we thought under the circumstances we had better celebrate the 20th year instead," she said.

"It will give councillors a chance to see the work of the centre and to see what the community is like.

"There will be people here who are very strong members of the community and there might be some interesting conversations between the residents and councillors."

Mrs Bottomley said the centre worked with a number of age groups from five-year-olds to senior citizens and would be sadly missed by the local community.

"It has been a contact point for a long time. We have parents who we had here as children when I first began," she said.

"There is no way I expect the council to offer us a property as such in this area because they are needed for the families.

"We would like to think that the project is maintained in the area so we can carry on giving a service on the other estates."

She added that the Mayor of Crewe and Nantwich, Councillor Ray Stafford, would also be attending the fun day on August 21.

"It will be a really special day. The community all pull together to help out," she said.

"Anyone who has used the Moathouse Centre during the past 20 years should come along. It could be our swansong."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.