A campaign has started to get official recognition for a community hub.

Those in the Sunlight Centre, Gillingham, running activities for residents want Medway Council to grant the building Asset of Community Value (ACV) status.

The Sunlight Development Trust hopes to extend its lease with the authority so it can continue using the Richmond Road building for community use.

As well as this, the authority will now have to decide whether the building can be registered as an ACV after a petition of 35 signatures was presented at a full council meeting.

Under the Localism Act 2011 communities can nominate land or buildings they believe further social wellbeing or the interests of the community.

The designation means the site gets registered with the local authority and, if it comes up for sale, the interested party will be given a fair chance to bid for it.

They can choose to use the Community Right to Bid, which gives them six months to see if they can raise enough funds to make the purchase.

Examples in Medway include the former Deangate Ridge golf course and sports complex, the town hall gardens off Whiffens Avenue in Chatham and Luton Millennium Green.

As well as hosting a GP surgery and pharmacy, the building has a number of other facilities including a volunteer-run café, recording studio, family room, a community radio station and a number of meeting rooms.

Groups using the building as a base include Medway Afro Caribbean Association, Men in Sheds, Alcoholics Anonymous, the Wellbeing Café – which offers sessions to help people with their mental health – and the High Hopes gardening group.

The centre opened after the former Gillingham Borough Council decided to buy the former Sunlight Laundry building in 1996 for £200,000 and turn it into something of benefit for the community.

The Sunlight Development Trust became a registered charity in 2006.

Chairman of trustees Cllr Adam Price – who also represents the area on Medway Council – said: "The Sunlight Centre is a unique and amazing place, it really is.

"Some people say it's like a Tardis – they drive past and they don't realise that there's all that in there.

"The trust has a lease for 20 years from Medway Council and we are in very positive negotiations with them to be able to extend that lease.

"This is just a way of the community being able to say that we value what happens within the Sunlight Centre and we wish for that to continue."