A NEWPORT community centre is preparing to reopen after a complete transformation.

Part of the Hope Centre in Somerton was gutted by fire in August 2010 causing tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Equipment such as laptops, table tennis tables and a projector screen in the centre’s youth room were all damaged.

Since then the centre, which is run by RASCAL (Regeneration Association Somerton Community At Large), has received a £300,000 grant from the Welsh Government, which it is using to completely renovate the centre.

It has also received a £5,000 grant from the Big Lottery to create a garden city cafe, which will be a social enterprise run by volunteers.

Volunteers were working on the cafe yesterday ready for the centre’s official reopening on February 3.

A design competition, called Design Factor, was run by the organisation Pinkspiration, and invited interior design students at the University of Glamorgan to pitch possible designs.

Local residents sat on the judging panel and the winning design is now becoming a reality with decoration involving artificial turf, an array of plants and ornamental tree trunks.

The Hope Centre originally opened in 2008 after local people fought for 13 years to create it.