A campaign to save an important community building used by people of all ages is gathering momentum.

The Old Scout Hut in St Davids is used by the People’s Shed who host a knitting group and a sewing group and woodworking and metalwork sessions as well as local church meetings and for children’s birthday parties.

Until recently it was also used by St Davids Playgroup.

The building was originally constructed in 1992, funded by the community after a ‘Buy a Brick Build a Hut’ campaign which sold bricks at £1 a go. The campaign and a lot of goodwill from locals and tradespeople saw the hut completed much to the delight of residents.

Although no longer used by the scouts the hut in Ffynnon Wen has remained a popular place for community groups to meet and is available for hire at the very low cost of £15 a session by groups and residents.

The hut itself is still owned by the scout movement while the land is owned by Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC).

The Scouts have offered to gift the building to St Davids City Council and PCC has offered the land on which the building sits to the city council rent free for 125 years.

If this offer is not taken up, the risk is that the hut might face permanent closure and later down the line demolition.

St Davids City Council has set up a working group to look at taking over and running the shed made up of council members and community group leaders who have an interest in saving the hut for community use.

The will vote on whether to take over the hut at their April 22 meeting.

In the meantime a petition has been set up urging councillors to accept the gift of the building from the scouts and the free lease from PCC. A GoFundMe has also been set up to fund the purchase of a new boiler for the hut which would enable the playgroup to use it again.

Before the decision is made, city councillor Becky Lloyd is urging St Davids residents to get involved.

The council needs feedback on whether residents want it to protect the hut; whether people can help fundraise to replace the boiler and undertake some maintenance work and if people would volunteer to be on a sub committee tp help run the hut.

“A decision [on the hut’s future] needs to be made imminently on its future so time is ticking,” said Ms Lloyd.

“It isn’t just a case of getting the council to save the scout hut. Its future is in the hands of the whole community and it will need a community effort to save it.

“Please share your views, spread the word and get involved.”

You can sign the petition and support the GoFundMe by clicking on the links above or visiting https://www.change.org/p/save-our-scout-hut-st-david-s or www.gofundme.com/f/Save-Our-Scout-Hut-Appeal.

There is also a coffee morning at the hut on Tuesday, April 16 from 11am until 1pm.

To find out more about the campaign to save the hut and to get involved, search for Save our Scout Hut St Davids on Facebook.