6 responses so far ↓

• 1 Matt // May 13, 2008 at 5:25 pm

  One thing (Judge Dread raised it!) that would be interesting is to see how much this increase will actually affect the members! If the increase is spread over a minimum of 70+ members surely the cost can be spread?

• 2 Bowler // May 13, 2008 at 9:58 pm

  Yes the cost can be spread over the membership which unfortunatley is reducing every year. You Matt or the Judge have not seen the agreement that the membership is being asked to sign. It is not solely about the money, in fact we offered to pay the increase before the council meeting on Thurs.
  They have refused this unless we sign the new agreement, there are 3 clauses that we would like them to change.
  The increase is to be an annual rise of 8% for the next 4 years and then 4 yearly reviews will take place until the end of the agreement in 41 years time. After the first 4 years this could be a much larger % increase, we are asking them to link it to the RPIX.
  In case a dispute arose in the future we would like a clause inserted to appoint an independent mediator, they will not accept this, they do not seem to belive in democracy.

• 3 Val // May 13, 2008 at 11:03 pm

  As a resident of Bradley Stoke who pays concil tax here, why should I and other BS residents have to pay for the cost of a mediator. If the lub wants to follow that route then why doesn’t it offe to pay for it. I believe it costs around £200 per hour and if the arguments between the individual members of that club are anything to go by it will probably take at least a week!I have heard that only around 5% of the members live in BS is this true? If so they can pay commercial rents for a service that should be for the residents of BS, not outsiders. Just my personal view

• 4 Judge Dread // May 14, 2008 at 1:09 am

  Bowler has made the point , that Bowler unlike many others has seen the lease which was agreed initially by the Bowlers after a year of deliberation and was then rejected by them but has now been kindly re-offered to them. As Bowler has a copy of the lease perhaps Bowler might copy all the lease into an e mail and share it with myself and Bradley Stoke Residents so that we might decide whether the lease is fair to the residents and whether or not it offers the Bowlers a bad or a fair deal. Judge Dread currently believes Bowler will not do this as the reality is the lease is a lot fairer than Bowler is suggesting. The clock is ticking and the mediocre increase that the Town Council has asked the Bowlers to pay will soon no longer be available to them. I hope the Bowlers do not accept what I believe are overgenerous terms and that Bradley Stoke residents themselves have full use of this facility and form their own Bowling Club. As an aside Bradley Stoke has one of the best Leisure and Sports Centres within its Boundaries, many people from all over South Glos use this facility and daresay even many from Bristol. Bradley Stoke residents however do not subsidise these customers. They pay their way or if indeed any subsidy is paid it comes directly from South Gloucestershire. In the case of the Bowls Club (The Northavon Bowls Club) the vast majority of the membership I believe to be 95% of same do not live in Bradley Stoke. Yet these Bowlers, bleat on and on about what is fair to them. I tell you what would fair to residents of Bradley Stoke would be that the Bowlers pay a fair rent for what they are getting as in this case it is the Bradley Stoke residents who are affectively subsidising these outsiders and have been doing so for years.

  Julian Barge stated the Northavon Bowling Club should get into the real world, he is right, very right. In my view the Northavon Bowling Club will soon be extinct as the Dodo if not at least as extinct as Northavon which ceased to be many years ago. Bowler copy the offered lease and put it on the web site, let the residents of Bradley Stoke see for themselves what the situation is and at the same time publish your accounts on here as well plus details of how many of you live in Bradley Stoke and the numbers of members living elsewhere to give us all a full picture.

  I await a partial reply from Bowler but do not anticipate a full one. My current judgement is with Bradley Stoke Town Council.

  Judge Dread

• 5 sir francis drake // May 14, 2008 at 8:05 pm

  To answer Judge Dread and others.
  Northavon Bowling Club have never claimed that all their bowling club members live in Bradley Stoke, but almost 40% do, and the remainder (who lived in this area before Bradley Stoke came into being), have sons, daughters, grandchildren and other family members who do live on Bradley Stoke. Our membership list has been freely available and given to Baileys Court caretakers every year. We will not publish it due to the Data Protection Act
  How many councillors publish their personal details and how many live in Bradley Stoke?.
  Are all other community groups in Bradley Stoke now going to have to make their member ship lists public?
  Why when the bowls club pay £8000 for the green maintenance at no cost to the council and pay £2000 for the use of the hall from April to September only, do BSTC want to impose a 10% increase every year. (now reduced to 8%). with an unspecified increase after 4 years.
  Why are they willing to ask only 6% from the cricketers and why are BSTC maintaining the cricket pitch.?
  NABC tried paying all the monies due but Bradley Stoke refused them.
  NABC agreed immediately to go to arbitration. The conservative controlled Bradley Stoke council have refusedFREE arbitration from conservative controlled South Gloucestershire Council as ‘they do not believe them to be unbiased’!!
  Where are all the local councillors? At the last full council meeting only 8 turned up out of a possible 15, more than normal.
  Look at the published BSTC accounts. A saving of over £232,000 was declared.
  NABC audited accounts have been made available to BSTC.
  When the bowls club meet the elected officers act as the club servants the members are the important ones, and all members are treated with respect and everyones contribution is valued.
  If all of you are all really interested in Bradley Stoke and the local community go along to the Town Council meetings, see if they are really open to public comment and debate then come back and make some serious comments.

• 6 Willow // May 14, 2008 at 10:39 pm

  Bowler(s). Please don’t take this as negativity towards Northavon Bowls Club as nothing could be further from the truth. There is currently a bowls green at Baileys Court and as the club that has called it home since 1991, its right that everything thats possible should be done to see if it can continue to be the home of Northavon Bowling Club.

  I speak from a fairly well informed stance on your situation (probably won’t take much to work out how!!) but also from the luxury of seeing it from the outside and I have to say there is amazement at how its got to this stage.
  I realise you have concerns regarding some of the issues in your rental agreement negotiations and I don’t want to get involved in whether I think your right or wrong on these. I’m sure you have good reason for thinking your stance is the right one.
  But unless you know something I don’t, if you don’t reach agreement this week, your out for good.
  Is that not one of the best examples of ‘cutting your nose off to spite your face’. You don’t want to lose an argument with the council, but as a result your homeless. I KNOW these issues are important to you, I KNOW your clubs future may be a more difficult one financially if you signed the agreement thats been put before you, but you are now saying that you’d rather lose your home and presumably your club than try to find a way of existing under the proposed new agreement.
  I find that strange. That, through your decision to refuse this final offer, you are about to allow your club to be evicted from its home.
  I apologise if you have something up your sleeve that could change all this in your favour but as that’s not happened in the past 12 months of negotiations, it has to be assumed by us outsiders that’s not about to happen.

  Of the points you have issue with, the first falls into a category that I have heard people being critical of you, namely different versions of events coming from different sources within the club.
  Again, please don’t take this as anything personal from me, I’m just passing on a general view from those outside of your club.
  I have heard on a couple of occasions, and its quoted in the story above by the club chairwoman, that the rent increase is unaffordable and would close you down.
  You have made some good comments to help out readers on here but one of them is that this is not solely about the rent and that you offered to pay the rent increase.
  This contradicts the comments by Chairwoman Thompson that said the rent increase would close you down.
  You make the point that in the proposed lease, there will be further rent reviews every four years at which you could be asked for an even higher increase.
  Absolutely thats a major concern. But in your existing lease agreement, the rent is reviewed EVERY YEAR. So though you have a point in terms of a perfect agreement for the future of your club, this ’sticking point’ in the new agreement is no worse than what you already have. Worth losing your club over??

  Third point, wanting a clause inserted to allow for a mediator to be appointed in instances of future disputes. Another valid point. I understand why you want this.
  Maybe there are reasons linked to the way in which your negotiations have gone that have led to you not getting this clause!!!
  But again, you don’t have it in your existing agreement either.
  So two of the things you feel are wrong with the proposed new agreement and that you’re prepared to lose your club over, have been issues you’ve lived with since the club was formed at Baileys 17 years ago.

  The rent issue; I know that you already pay a lot yourselves to maintain the green and that rent increases are an unwelcome thing for anyone, but your comment that you already offered to pay it would indicate you could at least manage it for the short term.

  So how is getting chucked out of your home for good the best decision for your club??

  The agreement on offer exposes your club no more than your existing one does so why not get yourselves back into your home and then carry on negotians with BSTC on improving future agreements whilst still being able to enjoy your sport, rather than in a position of eviction?

  Are these hurdles worth losing your club over, because that’s what your about to do?

Leave a Comment