Bowls club left in limbo over damage which left rinks unplayable
The bill follows a recent inspection from Berkshire County bowling officials, who found that only two rinks out of a potential 12 were up to required standards, a reduction of four this season.
The bowling club, which dates back to the 16th century and which has been based in the park since 1937, is the latest organisation to have fallen foul of cracks and subsidence across the town centre, which first appeared in 2010 after water extraction works were carried out by Parkway contractors Costain while constructing the shopping centre’s carpark.
The town council has been locked in a legal battle with Costain for three years, with the total cost of temporary repairs, legal costs and a hydrogeological report, which is still to be made public, exceeding £24,000. And at a policy and resources committee meeting on Monday, councillors rejected spending £84,500 from reserves to repair the green, saying that the spend would be a risk.
Speaking after the decision, the chairman of the Bowls Club, Ted Sinfield said he was disappointed but added that the club would not disappear.
“I think we had assumed that the decision would go a different way and then [Mr Swift-Hook] made it quite clear that was not going to be the case,” he said.
“We’ve been assured that when the funding settlement is over that this would fund the bowling green. I can’t see there’s a risk after this long time. I don’t believe anyone on the council believes they will not get a large sum of money.”
Mr Sinfield explained that clubs from across the county were refusing to come to them because of the state of the green.
“Overall, we will have to see what comes out of it now. What hasn’t really been picked up on is the effect this will have on people’s view of Newbury,” he said.
Explaining the council’s position, the leader of the town council, Julian Swift-Hook (Lib Dem, Pyle Hill), said: “We’re extremely dissapointed that this issue has arisen as a result of what has allegedly happened in Parkway but we are not in a position to spend this sum of money at this moment. If we spend this money it will push our reserves below a level and we will be at risk.
“There is currently a legal process taking place which may result in the playing surface being resurfaced and if we take a decision as a council before that legal process is completed then there is an opportunity for the other party to say that it is no longer damaged and we don’t need to fund it.”
Kim Hodges (Lib Dem, Northcroft) added: “A sum of this size represents half or our general reserves and to allocate these funds to this project is a huge risk in a year when we’re talking about big decisions to our budget. This is too much.”
When the Newbury Weekly News asked for an update to the legal proceedings Mr Swift-Hook said: “We’ve specualted so much in the past to try and give people a level of confidence but the bottom line is it could be Christmas or it could be six months.
“I can say that progress is being made but unfortunatley the nature of the progress is the legal detail and I can’t discuss that.”
Although councillors voted to not dip in to their reserves, a decision was made to “seek options”, working with the bowls club and the people of Newbury to find an alternative solution.
