Custom House Community Centre

The Custom House and Canning Town Community Renewal Project … is a charity established in 1994 and is based in the refurbished old St Luke’s Church building in Canning Town. Our mission is to develop and manage self-sustaining local groups, community-controlled assets and a range of activities and enterprises for the benefit of the local people. The Charity obtained St. Luke’s for a peppercorn and organised a £2.25 million refurbishment which created 4 floors of spacious offices and amenities. Rent from the offices and the Abrahams nursery building makes the Charity self sustaining and provides a regular if modest sum for charitable activities. The Charity is governed almost entirely by local people. At the end of 2021 the following were members of the Management Committee:- Sarah Ruiz Forest Gate Janet Moffatt Canning Town Frank Rosillo-Calle Canning Town Lorraine Starke Canning Town Freda Ayres Canning Town Amala Corera Epping Adrian Hodgson Custom House Elizabeth Booker Canning Town Structure, governance and management The Charity is registered as a charitable company limited by guarantee and governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. The CH&CTCRP, with a turnover of under £500,000, is run by trustees who are also directors. 9 trustees take responsibility for the risks involved in running the organisation by making considered decisions. They do this for nothing. 7 of 8 trustees come from Newham and 6 are from Custom House and Canning Town. The Charity is run by LOCAL PEOPLE FOR LOCAL PEOPLE. The trustees delegate their power to the general manager (John McNeill) who runs all the essential business and project work of the Charity. John’s first duty is to keep the Trustees properly informed so they can make effective decisions. The Charity also employs a financial administrator (Mike Bowles). The CH&CTCRP has broad charitable objectives to promote purposes beneficial to local people including; the relief of poverty, the advancement of education and training, the preservation and protection of the environment and the provision of recreation in the interest of social welfare to improve the conditions of life of local people.