Another Glasgow bowling club lined up for flats
December 7 2021
Abercromby Homes and Holmes Miller Architects are proposing to redevelop Kelvindale Bowling and Lawn Tennis Club in order to deliver 16 apartments, relocating existing tennis courts to vacant scrubland to the north.
This would enable the clubhouse to be refurbished and extended by CA Architects, with the remainder of the site to be landscaped in common with other sports grounds across the city which have pursued similar rationalisation strategies.
The linear site is roughly split between two landscaped 'platforms' cut into the hillside with a steep bank presenting to Kelvindale Road to the east. A new access road will be routed from here after an agreement was struck with the owners of a suitable strip of land.
This will enable the southernmost extremity of the site to be given over to a rectangular buff brick apartment block, framed by white render and precast panels in reference to the painted stonework of neighbouring properties.
In a design statement, the architects said: "The need for new housing and the need for capital to make the sports club sustainable justify this minimal impact of the four-storey block.
"The building has been designed to comply with the Gold Hybrid Standard with a highly insulated and air-tight envelope, enhanced ventilation and photovoltaic panels."
A financial contribution for the provision of allotments as part of the deal.
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18 Comments
Although from some of the stuff you read you'd think that lawn bowls is Scotland's national passion and a pre-requisite of school teaching.
Seriously though, to the best of my knowledge most clubs own the land their club is on (just like golf clubs and all the rest) and so if the members think the best thing to do is sell up then fair play to them. They might well have dwindling memberships and the their liabilities in terms of maintenance etc.. could be greater than their income.
Hysterical locals who haven't given the place a damn or a dime over the years should be politely listened to and then ignored. If you wanted a say you should have joined the club and contributed to it. Popular, active clubs won't have their heads turned by a developer with a few quid. Whereas cash strapped and struggling clubs most certainly will.
One persons 'secretively and deceptively' is another persons 'in commercial confidence'. By your standards most people plan their weekly shop secretively and deceptively' (i.e without consultation with their neighbours)...its a private matter and these are best kept private.
The issue become public when a planning application is made. You now have your chance to have your say. As i said earlier if you were a contributing club member you could have had your say before this stage. Its right and proper that interested parties are consulted at the correct time; certainly not before.
If you've got an issue with the community council (who incidentally are all volunteers trying their best to help their local community) take it up with them. It's better to not conflate your gripe with the community council and the proposals as submitted. Lots of community councils have really struggled through the course of the pandemic. A more charitable position would be to offer to help out rather than suggest you have been 'negligently ignored or fobbed off".
I'm not sure NIMBY is an insult, its an acronym for Not In My Back Yard. In this instance it seems apt and appropriate.
The maintenance of courts is a matter for the club. If they haven't funds to maintain a surface then it simply can't happen. If they had a magic money tree they would have, no doubt, given it a shake. But when the cash needs to come from members and donations decisions have to be made on what is affordable and what can be deferred.
If the grounds can't be developed as they are 'designated for community use' as you suggest then your lawyers, GCC's lawyers and the developers lawyers will do very well out of it as they argue the merits of that particular point. Between them they'll get to the bottom of it. However, as there will still be tennis courts and a bowling green then, in a sense, the community use is still being provided. In the meantime those sort of arguments will need to be treated with a degree of caution. In my experience most developer clients will have checked the legality of the site and it's suitability for development ahead of the current position where they've actually forked out some money for a consultant design team.
Those comments are almost a perfect rendition of nimbyism - i'm tempted to call it a parody post.
What we had was a longwinded rant that the user is dead against the development because the developer never tickled their tummy. All information was online, but because they never made IR feel important by printing it out (COP26 anyone?) & delivering it there is a staunch objection.
Not one comment on the quality of the development (whether good or bad) or change of use......other than its designated community use (as it will remain).'
Yet the user wonders why the CC ignore them......I'm willing to guess why.
PS - you might be better concentrating your objection on the pretty risible apartment layouts of flat types 01 and 07 to avoid overlooking the adjoining properties. GCC will be more interested in this than the other nebulous arguments.
#5 Peter, take a bow son.
last night at the bowling club - oh what a night and not in a 4 seasons sort of way!
A complicated scenario and a clash of ideologies combined with the usual developer/planning smell of deals done by sharks behind closed doors
One thing stood out - the standing room only nature of the response.
Small story about me and what had changed in the 50 years since I last used the club - I played tennis there on the courts which may be gone with several of my last year at school pals.
Having just moved to Kelvindale it was the only thing remotely fun for a seventeen year old to do in the area....within a year I had moved out to Byres Road to start my university studies at the Mac my parents remaining in the house.
I have for my sins lived many places and attended many mostly box ticking formal planning enquiries. defo not fun.
To extract a bit of clarity from yesterday evening the main clash was between the private club and its (possibly slightly perochial) conservative view and the very obvious desire for community facilities .... the bottom line is that nothing will survive without an income and the income from memberships seems insufficient to allow for the survival never mind the club thriving.
The in fighting is just not constructive we have had 50 years pass since I first played tennis and escaped the confines of Kelvindale.
I have fought for the retention of public spaces good buildings and transparency all my life and if we (whatever 'we' means in this case) which I would suggest is key to any forward planning
That there is a need for shared community facilities is patently obvious from late nights turnout I would be very interested to learn how many were actually there.
There may or may not be an opening here for "people power". We may or may not actually be or have a community here.....since I moved back in after my mother's death I have not ventured beyond Baronald.
I would advise that 2 things have to happen
1 - a proper presentation of what is proposed
2 - an identification of the planning office and officer(s) - a printed copy (I see no big screens) of the local area plan and the zoning of land in our area. It is now my area too.
It does indeed sound like the local community council need to wake up - what is planned for the land opposite Cleveden school - they desperately need a lunch room. We already have severe challenges on our infrastructure; drainage frequent flooding at Kelvindale bridge - impassible to Tesco on recent occasions. My plea can we please get together sacrifice ideologies at least temporarily and look at the practical realities. We are not in. a world where petted parochialism or blue sky ideology can survive we are in a world where we all need to start work on how we and our local environment can survive
I went on the march. I know how serious this is I would like to improve things so that it becomes attractive for me to remain here - I am currently teetering ..... I do like to be beside the seaside.
Thank you for a very interesting and thought provoking evening evidence of much passion
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