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Actress Fay Ripley, who is among those opposing plans to redevelop the site |
Cold Feet star throws a wobbly over bowls club plans for luxury homes
Neighbours oppose development needed to stave off closure threat as losses mount
THE sedate world of crown green bowling is about to be shattered by the rumble of builders’ lorries if a 130-year-old Dartmouth Park club has its way.
Directors at Mansfield Bowling Club, in Croftdown Road, are preparing plans to build nine family homes on its car park to raise desperately needed funds that would keep the bowls rolling.
But neighbours say the homes would ruin their peace, invade their privacy and represent a gross overdevelopment.
One of them, actress Fay Ripley, who starred in hit TV drama Cold Feet, said: “This is about overdevelopment in an already built-up area.
“How on earth can they consider building something that is three storeys high with underground parking? It will certainly take light and privacy from us but there are issues with overdevelopment in a conservation area.”
The car parking spaces planned have raised concerns about the safety of children walking to and from the area’s five schools.
She said neighbours were angry at the bowling club for not approaching them to see if they could help turn around the fortunes of the club.
“There is a sense of community here,” she added. “If they had come to us and said ‘We are in serious trouble’ we could have all sat down and worked out a way to make the club viable.
“There are so many other options – they could run a gym, for example. They could offer bowling sessions to children, use part of the car park as a garden for the nursery in York Rise.
“The last thing this area needs is a gated community of nine homes for millionaires. There is a much more pressing need for social housing.”
The club was established in 1891, but falling membership means it is desperately looking for ways to find extra cash to remain open. It now has only about 100 full-time members, who have been battling to cut deficits each year as losses have mounted to about £30,000. It no longer has a full-time groundsman – a member does the time-consuming job voluntarily. A window cleaner offers his services in return for free bowling sessions.
Tucked behind the green are allotments and Kenlyn Tennis Club, which has two courts and a rickety shed for a clubhouse. If the scheme goes ahead, the bowling club says it will resurface the courts and put up a new base for the tennis players.
Club director Adrian Pruss said: “Doing nothing is not an option. We have lost lots of members over the years and the place needs to be looked after.
“We are losing serious amounts of money and if this smaller scheme does not go ahead, then we could lose the whole club and see all the land turned into housing.”
Money from the homes development would be spent on renovating two flats used by the club steward and his assistant, improving the club’s kitchens to bring in extra revenue from functions and on installing a lift and disabled toilets upstairs.
Mr Pruss added: “Some of our members are getting frail. Because of the Disability Rights Act we need to ensure we improve facilities.”
He estimates the club needs another 150 to 200 members to break even, without any renovation work taking place.
“Our income has not changed much over the years but costs have gone up,” he said. “We want to raise enough money by building these homes to set up a fighting fund so the interest from that will keep the club going for ever.”
The club’s directors had decided on this course of action with a heavy heart, Mr Pruss added.
“We’d have liked to ultimately landscape that area but the finances are such this just is not possible,” he said. |
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