Northavon Bowls Club is adamant that it will not sign the proposed rental agreement from Bradley Stoke Town Council for the Bailey’s Court green.
The club and the council are locked in a dispute over an 8%-per-year rise in the money the club pays to use the facilities there.
The town council voted at an acrimonious meeting last week to give the group an ultimatum to either pay or leave.
But the club says the rise would put the club in danger because many of its members would not be able to afford the increase.
At a bowls club open meeting on Monday, attended by around 70 members, they have once again decided to turn down the proposal.
A letter, sent by the council to the club, said the group now has until May 20 to decide to take up the rental agreement.
If there is no last-minute diplomatic resolution the club must remove its property from Bailey’s Court by May 27.
After the meeting last week, Northavon Bowls Club chairwoman Margaret Thompson said the rental rise could “close us down”.
“I thought they would be more magnanimous and I thought that they would see a way forward to support the bowls club.
“I don’t know what they will do with the bowls green as this will close us down because we just cannot afford the rise that they want.”
Tags: · Northavon Bowls Club
Northavon Bowls Club has been given ten days by Bradley Stoke Town Council to sign an agreement which will see an 8% rental rise.
At a specially-convened meeting the club was told if they did not sign the deal that they would not be allowed to use the green at Bailey’s Court Activity Centre.
But the bowls club says the move may see them close down because they cannot afford the proposed rise.
The agreement to send back the previous rental proposal came at the end of a stormy meeting where the council was repeatedly pressed on arbitration.
Bradley Stoke councillors rejected a plea to allow South Gloucestershire Council to arbitrate as, according to Mayor Julian Barge, they would not be impartial.
Northavon Bowls Club chairwoman Margaret Thompson said she was “very disappointed” at the outcome of the meeting.
“I thought they would be more magnanimous and I thought that they would see a way forward to support the bowls club.
“I don’t know what they will do with the bowls green as this will close us down because we just cannot afford the rise that they want.”
Mayor Barge said: “We have been trying to work with the club for over a year now and that has been about coming to an agreement and arbitration, in any other language, but if the will is not there to work together it does not matter who arbitrates.”
Tags: · Northavon Bowls Club
We were live at the specially-convened Bradley Stoke Town Council meeting which was called to discuss the Northavon Bowls Club rent row and the new town centre name.
Below you can read our live coverage of the meeting which took place on Thursday, 8 May.
Click the ‘more’ button to read the full account.
(more…)
Tags: · Bradley Stoke Tesco Extra, Bradley Stoke town centre, Northavon Bowls Club, The Willow Brook Centre
A representative from Tesco will attend Thursday’s specially-convened Bradley Stoke Town Council meeting to discuss the name for the new town centre.
Dan Bramwell, Public Affairs Consultant for the firm, will face questions about The Brooks Centre name which councillors have opposed.
Tesco has previously said they would run a competition (also here) to name the new development but later claimed “time had got away from them”.
The meeting will also discuss the row between Northavon Bowls Club and the town council.
Tags: · Bradley Stoke Tesco Extra, Northavon Bowls Club, town centre
A special Bradley Stoke Town Council meeting has been called on Thursday to discuss the rental dispute with Northavon Bowls Club.
The meeting, to be held at the Jubilee Centre, will see the full council attend to talk about the current deadlock which has seen the bowls club locked out of the green at Bailey’s Court.
The stalemate led to members of Northavon Bowls Club hold a protest match which was eventually stopped after the police were called.
Also on the agenda is plans to discuss the the town centre where Tesco has recently come under fire from Bradley Stoke Town Council.
The supermarket firm decided to call it the Brooks Centre after promising to involve residents in a competition to name it.
The meeting will start at 7.30pm in the Woodlands Suite.
Footnote: The Northavon Bowls Club issue was referred to full council by the Bailey’s Court Working Group following the recent incidents surrounding the dispute.
Tags: · Northavon Bowls Club
The row between Bradley Stoke Town Council and Northavon Bowls Club continues with the letters page of the Evening Post the latest battleground.
Last week, Councillor Caroline Charlton wrote to the publication to say “the efforts by the town council to negotiate with Northavon Bowls Club about setting a rent fair to both themselves and town taxpayers have been extensive”.
She went on to say: “The town council is doing its level best to draw up an arrangement that is fair and equitable to town taxpayers and the bowls club. We will be contacting the club once again in an effort to progress negotiations.”
Members of Northavon Bowls Club have written to the paper to have their say - The Evening Post has yet to publish the letter but we’ve published it in full below.
Councillor Caroline Charlton certainly does not put the record straight; once again Bradley Stoke Town Council cannot recognise the truth from its own propaganda. Northavon Bowling Club does not owe any rent for last year - the Council has banked our cheque in full and final settlement for the rent to March this year and has returned our cheque for the quarter’s rent to June.
The bowls club is not subsidised - we are prepared to pay in full the costs relating to the hours that we occupy the premises. However, we are being asked to subsidise the Town Council’s costs when the building is unoccupied.
Contrary to what Caroline Charlton says, it is other users who are heavily subsidised. The Council spent £775,000 on new rooms for which their only additional income is a peppercorn rent from the youth club – a scandalous waste of taxpayers’ money. The cricket club is being asked to pay less than £4,000 when the cost of maintaining the cricket field is about £20,000 per annum. In comparison for the last six years the bowls club has paid all of its green maintenance costs, currently £8,000 per annum.
One of the main contractual differences between us relates to their refusal to make available details of the running costs of the premises and allow them to be independently audited if required. Yet they want to see our accounts, which we consent to, as part of the agreement. There is no transparency on their part and the message that this sends is that they wish to be able to charge us whatever they want, while we have no right of challenge. We are not prepared to accept this.
South Gloucestershire Council has offered to provide an independent professional mediator to help resolve this dispute. The bowls club accepted this offer early last week, Bradley Stoke Council have NOT; yet having unlawfully locked us out of a green that we maintain, they still say they want to progress negotiations.
From executive committee of NABC.
Footnote: This letter appeared in Friday’s Evening Post.
Tags: · Northavon Bowls Club
The row between Northavon Bowls Club and Bradley Stoke Town Council has featured in the national press on Wednesday - here’s a round-up of some of the articles.
The story has also attracted interest from overseas media outlets with this website getting calls from establishments such as American news channel CNN!
Police have been accused of heavy-handedness after sending in seven officers to deal with a group of pensioners who broke in to their own bowling green.
Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 23 April
PENSIONERS who were enjoying a quiet game of bowls were evicted by seven police officers.
Daily Express, Wednesday 23 April
As pitch invasions go, it was pretty sedate.
But when police were called to deal with pensioners on a bowling green without permission, they left nothing to chance.
Daily Mail, Wednesday 23 April
… an official complaint was to be lodged about the “heavy handed” police presence.
BBC News, Wednesday 23 April
Fifty pensioners were raided by police during a relaxing Sunday morning game of bowls.
Daily Mirror, Wednesday 23 April
Tags: · Northavon Bowls Club
