A Kingston day centre for adults with learning disabilities will stay open for the next 10 years, as arrangements to save it from closure have been confirmed.

Learning disability charity Hft told Kingston Council it has now exchanged contracts for a developer to buy Hft Surrey, also known as Springfield Resource Centre, in New Malden, and lease it back to the organisation for 10 years.

The process is expected to be completed in January and means the centre will stay open until 2036, when the new owner will look to develop the site.

Hft told distraught families in July it planned to close the centre in October due to financial challenges, which sparked fierce opposition from residents and councillors.

Victoria Diamond, whose brother John, 61, uses the centre, launched a Change.org petition stating the "abrupt decision" was made without consultation or enough notice. The petition gathered 1,440 signatures within days.

Victoria Diamond and her brother John. (Credit: Victoria Diamond)

One supporter wrote: "My uncle has been going to Hft for over 20 years and I don't know what we would do without it. It has helped him in every way imaginable for all his needs but also his routines too."

Another commented: "My brother has severe autism and the care they provide is vital to his routine, and vital for respite too. Staff and service users should not be left like this. Incredibly unfair."

Another petition set up by Kingston Independent councillors, part of Kingston Independent Residents Group (KIRG), said: "The people who rely on the Springfield Centre deserve better than to be treated as an afterthought. This is their space. This is their community."

In response to the backlash, Hft withdrew its notice to shut the centre and said it was exploring selling the building and leasing it back so services could continue.

The charity said it had been forced to review its future as the social care sector was gripped by major challenges, including persistent underfunding, staff shortages and rising demand.

Victoria previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) Springfield was a second home for users like her brother, who is autistic and has learning disabilities, where they were valued, respected and thrived alongside caring staff.

ohn celebrated his 60th birthday at the centre. (Credit: Victoria Diamond)

John has been going to the centre since the mid-1990s, and she described how closing the service would be "like completely tearing the carpet out from under his feet".

The centre supports more than 140 people with learning disabilities in South London, including Kingston, Surbiton, Chessington, New Malden and Sutton. It offers activities on weekdays, including creative and educational courses, while users gain work experience in the canteen and enjoy its accessible garden.

The council's New and Old Malden Neighbourhood Committee heard on Thursday (December 11) that contracts to sell and lease back the property to Hft had been exchanged, and the process was due for completion by the middle of January.

Independent Councillor James Giles, Leader of the Opposition, said Springfield had been a "lifeline" for people with learning disabilities in New Malden since the Cocks Crescent and Causeway resource centres shut in 2010 and 2011.

He said the community came together "to send a message loud and clear to Hft that we weren't going anywhere without a fight", after the closure plans caused "great distress… unnecessarily to that community, and indeed those relations will still take time to properly rebuild".

Councillor Giles warned the authority must not take its foot off the pedal, however, as the agreement would only last for 10 years.

He said: "After 10 years, the owner will look to develop the site, and so what we have to start doing is identifying alternative sites, alternative provisions, because the greatest travesty of closing the Cocks Crescent and Causeway centres was that no alternative provision had been identified at the time."