THEY’VE opened up a cafe, a charity shop and a gym – but NICE aren’t finished yet.

A professionally sprung floor has been fitted for dance classes and they now have plans to expand the facilities at Netherthird Community Centre.

NICE (Netherthird Initiative for Community Empowerment) are run almost entirely by volunteers and chairperson Margaret Campbell is delighted with their impact on the community.

She said: “I’d say it was vibrant, the community centre with the cafe, the charity shop and the gym. It’s a busy, busy community centre and that’s before all the lets.

“The footfall has gone up 10 fold in the last couple of years and that’s why we are trying to get an extension.”

Sylvia Reid, NICE project manager, added: “It’ a great sign that we’re running out of room.

“We can’t ever thank our volunteers enough and we are committed to working with people with disabilities.

“We’re hoping to get funding to bring on our volunteer chef – he has a prosthetic leg – and he is teaching our other kitchen staff great skills.

The group’s efforts have helped tackle social isolation in the area while ensuring everything they do is affordable for the residents of Netherthird.

Future plans include charging points for electric cars, community laptops to help local children with homework, an electric car for community transport and an expansion to the community centre itself.

“We’re trying to be forward thinking,” Sylvia added. “We are also doing a food initiative in conjunction with the Co-op in Mauchline.

“They are so on board with us and I want to thank them for all their help. We’re just doing it on a small scale compared to a lot of the big places but it’s invaluable.

“We are also closely working with yipworld who are coming up to run classes and we are running a Universal Credit surgery because it’s a biggie right now.”

The next step for NICE will be to secure finding for the planned extension which is expected to cost over £200,000 and will have two wellbeing rooms.

Sylvia added: “The government and local councils are putting more and more on the local communities to sort it out themselves so that is what we are trying to do.

“Our applications are in but we are still looking for funding for the extension. Maggie has put in loads of work for it o we have every faith that we’ll get there.”