Controversial plans to partly convert Wanstead Youth Centre into an education hub have been approved by Redbridge Council.

The scheme will involve the development of new classrooms, a community café, two playrooms and a sensory room in the rear sports hall. The middle gymnasium will be retained.

It was green lit by the cabinet at a meeting on Monday (October 13) and the council is eyeing a September 2025 completion date.

Despite a lengthy and public campaign, residents’ calls to “save our Wanstead Youth Centre” went unheeded.

Councillors called it a “win” for campaigners, but organiser Liz Martins said she still disagreed with the decision, having previously labelled the plan a “travesty”.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “They haven’t appreciated the significance that once they take away a large sports hall, it’s gone forever.”

She said the borough needed indoor sports courts, adding: “The community does not need more outdoor courts – we need indoor courts because there aren’t many available.”

The campaigner added it was “very, very difficult” to get bookings.

Redbridge Council first proposed transforming the youth centre in late 2023, after closing it in September.

The leadership previously described the building as “old” and potentially unsafe without “significant investment” touching £2.4 million. It cost around £86,000 a year to operate.

Speaking at last week’s meeting of the scrutiny committee, who likewise backed the scheme, Liz said it would be a “travesty” to build on the “only remaining sports hall in the west of the borough”.

She said: “How much has it cost us, the taxpayers and residents, for it to have sat empty and unused [since October 15 2023]?”

She told the LDRS that “hundreds of children have been denied the opportunity to participate in gymnastics and other sports,” which was impacting their physical and mental health.

Ahead of the meeting, Liz held a small protest against the council’s proposals.

She had propped up cardboard placards against the railings outside the town hall, but was quickly told to take them down by officers from the council’s community protection taskforce, who said it could qualify as flyposting.

Protests outside the town hall are not uncommon. In recent months, demonstrators have gathered to demand former leader Jas Athwal’s resignation after a BBC investigation revealed the squalid condition of his rental properties.

According to the council’s own timeline, the plans for the youth centre would be drawn up between October and January. Following a three-month design and consultation period, building work would commence in August.

Council officers previously warned that public opposition could “potentially have an adverse impact” on the timeline, but hope to placate residents through “ongoing consultation and engagement”.