A group that had just five days to raise £3,000 has reached its target thanks to a mystery donation.

The Lordship Rec Eco-Hub Cooperative hit the £18,000 needed to run the Eco-Hub, a communtiy centre in Lordship Rec, after an anonymous donor pledged £757.

The Friends of Lordship Rec, who created the Co-op, worked with the council to redevelop the park over the past decade following grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

During this time the Eco-Hub was re-opened to the public and used as a community centre.

However, when the council failed to find a commercial enterprise to run the building, the Co-op decided to make a bid to do so themselves.

In a message of thanks on their crowd funding page, the group wrote: “Thank you so much to everyone who emailed, tweeted, facebooked and pestered neighbours, friends and family to get involved, but most of all thank you to everyone who pledged.”

The group will now receive all of the pledged money, but are still gathering more donations to help them run the centre in the first yeyar.

Asher Jacobsberg, a board member of the Lordship Co-op, said the aim was to encourage people to buy shares in the hub.

He said: “The purpose of the co-op is that everyone can take part. And it’s designed so that if you have one share or twenty shares, you have the same vote in how things are run.”

Mr Jacobsberg added that the money was needed for repairs on the building, as it had been shut for two years. Rent to the council would only be paid in the form of providing services to the community.

The group are continuing to sell shares  on the crowd-funding website SpaceHive.

Mr Jacobsberg, of Mount Pleasant Road, said:  “It’ll be a great place for local people to come. It’s a fantastic building, it’s an eco build and has won awards for that. It uses next to no energy.

“We’ve had a great reaction from the local community, who are so pleased that the building is being used.”