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Mansfield Bowling Club director Roy Lee |
Anxious neighbours offer to raise cash to save bowls club
Community buy-out suggested in bid to block luxury homes development
A BOWLS club has been urged to ditch the developers keen to build luxury homes on its car park and instead to work with neighbours on a fundraising effort.
Opponents of plans to redevelop part of Mansfield Bowling Club, in Croftdown Road, Dartmouth Park, met its directors at an exhibition of designs on Monday and offered to help find cash to safeguard the club’s future.
Among suggestions put forward at the meeting attended by around 100 people was a plan by neighbours to lead a community buy-out of the club to help pay for improvements, more events to boost takings and more facilities, such as a swimming pool and tennis courts. Another idea was to turn the car park into allotments, with strips of land rented out as vegetable patches.
Club directors, who invited neighbours to meet the architects, say the redevelopment scheme would safeguard the future of the 120-year-old club, currently losing about £30,000 a year.
Falling membership and an urgent need to improve facilities have prompted the redevelopment plan, which would provide nearly £1million to keep the bowls rolling.
Oliver Butt, whose garden backs onto the car park, said neighbours would put forward alternative plans.
He added: “It’s even worse than I feared. The proposal entails building a 30-foot brick wall up against the end of my garden.
“We have had a meeting with people who are affected. We could raise a lot of money and help them. It could be a wonderful asset for the area if it was better managed. Neighbours have said we all become members but we have been told it is too late.”
Long-term club members Tony Walsh and Eric Moseley are pressing for the redevelopment to go ahead. Mr Moseley said: “I live in a council flat. I come here to meet people, to have a chat, have a pint and have a bowl. Without this place I’d been staring at four walls and a TV, and without this plan we’d be in real trouble.”
Mr Walsh added: “It will mean the Mansfield Bowling Club can carry on for another 120 years.”
The site is also home to Kenlyn Tennis Club. Treasurer Stephen Nussey said: “These plans have been a bit of a surprise. We need to make sure Mansfield have a long-term, sustainable plan. It is vital they get this right.”
Club director Roy Lee said: “The plans have been carefully thought out and they will guarantee our future. If we don’t do it, we could lose the whole site.” |
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