The Council is consulting on a proposal to close the Poverest Centre building in Orpington, and to deliver adult education services through a hub and spoke model using a range of different buildings and locations across the borough.
The consultation period runs from Monday 7 September to Sunday 18 October 2026.
The closure of the Poverest Centre building is proposed as part of a transformation of adult education, which would lead to increased availability of courses across the borough. It would mean that more places in the borough would host adult education classes to reach more people. The Kentwood Centre would be the adult education hub, with adult education courses continuing to take place there.
At this time, no final decision has yet been made. The purpose of this consultation is to seek views before any future decision is taken.
Engagement sessions
We encourage you to attend any of the sessions to learn more about the proposal, and to provide your views on how the proposed closure may impact you.
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Date |
Time |
Venue |
|---|---|---|
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Wednesday 9 September |
10am to 11:30am |
Poverest Centre |
|
Wednesday 9 September |
6pm to 7:30pm |
Poverest Centre |
|
Friday 11 September |
10am to 11:30am |
Kentwood Centre |
|
Tuesday 15 September |
9:30am to 11am |
Chislehurst Library |
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Tuesday 15 September |
12:00 to 1:30pm |
West Wickham Library |
|
Wednesday 23 September |
1pm to 2:30pm |
Beckenham Library |
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Wednesday 23 September |
4pm to 5:30pm |
Kentwood Centre |
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Friday 25 September |
1:30pm to 3pm |
Poverest Centre |
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Saturday 26 September |
9.30am to 11am |
Poverest Centre |
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Saturday 26 September |
12.00 to 1.30pm |
Orpington Library |
Online survey
To provide your views on how the proposed closure may impact you, please complete this online survey that is available from Monday 7 September until Sunday 18 October.
Further information
Further information about the proposal to close the Poverest Centre.
Why is closure being considered?
There are several reasons why the closure of the Poverest Centre is being considered.
- Adult education used to be run from many different sites across the borough. This allowed more people to have easier access to courses in their local area. About 20 years ago this changed due to some venues not being accessible. However, many Council buildings are now accessible, or are undergoing refurbishment works which will improve their accessibility, and therefore there is the option to go back to the hub and spoke model.
The hub and spoke model would use Kentwood as the administrative hub for adult education, with courses continuing to take place there. Kentwood is a larger building than Poverest and lends itself to being used by a range of community services, with Penge Library also moving to the building in 2028.
There are lots of potential ‘spoke’ sites which would also host adult education courses, replacing the Poverest building, and which would provide a geographical spread, making it easier for people to access courses in their local area, and making better use of our public estate.
These maps show all the potential sites where adult education courses could run from in the future.
- The Council is facing unprecedented financial pressures, and reducing the number of buildings it operates is an opportunity to make financial savings but not reduce services. There are many Council buildings that are empty for long periods of time (for example youth centres that are only used in the evening) and the Council has made a strategic decision to bring services together (co-locate) into fewer buildings where possible. This saves money on business rates, utilities, insurance, and maintenance, without reducing the service. The Poverest building costs about £120k a year to run. If the Council does not make these financial savings the savings will have to be found elsewhere, as the Council is legally required to have a balanced budget.
- There is a severe undersupply of affordable housing across the UK, including in Bromley. In Bromley alone there are approximately 4,300 households in housing need on the Council’s Housing Register. There are also currently approximately 1,450 homeless households unsettled in temporary accommodation (including approximately 1,300 in more expensive nightly paid). The high cost of temporary accommodation is one of the Council’s biggest financial pressures. Therefore, the Council is building and purchasing affordable housing to move households out of temporary accommodation and meet the high level of housing need faced in the borough. The Poverest site is suitable for 42 affordable family size homes. The Kentwood site is not suitable for housing for a number of reasons, including that the building is physically connected to a school.
What options have been considered for the site and the future of adult education?
Nine options have been considered by the Council, and the move to a hub and spoke model is the preferred option. The closure of the Poverest Centre building is proposed as part of a transformation of adult education, which would lead to increased availability of courses across the borough. It would mean that more places in the borough would host adult education classes to reach more people. Under the proposal the Kentwood Centre would be the adult education hub, with adult education courses continuing to take place there.
The nine options considered are set out in this table:
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OPTION 1 Poverest building retained with only key health and safety repairs made. |
This would keep the building operating in the short term, however further investment would be required to keep the building open long term. A temporary building closure would be required to undertake the repairs and therefore the adult education courses would have to relocate temporarily. The estimated cost of undertaking basic repairs is £1.7m. |
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OPTION 2 Poverest building fully refurbished |
This option would require the building to close for one academic year for building works. The estimated cost of refurbishment is c.£3m. The cost of this is considered too expensive given that no other Council services require use of this building, and therefore usage of the site would not be maximised. |
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OPTION 3 Poverest building is fully refurbished and the remaining land is used for housing |
This option would require the Poverest building to close for one academic year for building works. The estimated cost of the Poverest building works is c.£3m. The cost of this is considered too expensive given that no other Council services require use of this building, and therefore usage of the site would not be maximised. The business case for a small housing scheme of family sized houses in that location, was not considered financially viable. |
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OPTION 4 Poverest building is demolished and rebuilt alongside housing to better maximise the site.
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The estimated cost of building a new Poverest centre is c.£5m. This would be a smaller building, but with brand new facilities and would be less expensive to maintain. The cost of this is considered too expensive given that no other Council services require use of this building, and therefore usage of the site would not be maximised. |
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OPTION 5 Poverest site is used for housing and the adult education service is moved to Churchill Court.
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The estimated cost of making a new area of Churchill Court suitable for adult education is c.£6m. The cost of this is considered too expensive given that there is no co-location requirement and given the cost is higher than staying at Poverest. However, it is a central location that is easy for many residents to access given Bromley town has very good public transport links. |
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OPTION 6 Poverest site is maximised with other Council services co-located on to the site to make better use of the building. |
There are no Council services requiring new or additional space in that area of the borough that are not already accommodated. There would still be either a repair cost of c£1.7m or a refurbishment cost of c£3m as detailed above. |
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OPTION 7 The Poverest adult education service is moved to the Astley Day Centre site, and the Poverest site is used for affordable housing. |
There are constraints on the Astley site. The building is locally listed, on green belt, and there are mature trees. This impacts on opportunities to extend the building, and there is already another service co-located there. Unless the building was extended at an estimated cost of £4m, the times of day that the Astley site is used would make it difficult to effectively co-locate the adult education service without reducing both services. |
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OPTION 8 Adult education is moved to be delivered from other Council buildings through a hub and spoke model and the Poverest site is used for affordable housing. |
This is the preferred option. Kentwood would be used as the adult education hub. A range of buildings across the borough, such as libraries, would be used as the spoke sites. This would mean that more places in the borough would host adult education classes to reach more people in their local area. This would make the most of the Council’s estate, using many different buildings. In addition, some non-Council owned buildings could be used for certain courses to meet the needs of specific groups in specific areas of the borough. |
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OPTION 9 Adult education is solely delivered through the Kentwood Centre and the Poverest site is used for affordable housing. |
This would lead to a small reduction in adult education courses, due to the number of classrooms available, and would mean less flexibility in timetabling to meet the needs of service users. The Kentwood site will already be maximised as a number of other services are moving onto the site including Penge Library. Having only one venue would also significantly restrict access for people who do not live in easy access to Penge. |