YEARS of uncertainty over the future of Brightwell Bowling Club looks set to end with the loss of its town-centre home for the past eight decades to the East Street redevelopment. Faced with the cost of digging up the green then reinstating it, or excavating beneath it to the proposed underground car park, Waverley Council's ruling executive on Tuesday opted instead to investigate relocation or merger with another club. The East Street redevelopment scheme is already expected to deliver a much lower return than that originally envisaged for Waverley and as an officers' report to councillors pointed out: "If the building allocated for a new clubhouse were to be applied to a commercial use, a further value would be achieved." At the same time as asking officers to explore in detail the possibilities for relocation or merger, councillors have also asked for information on serving the club with notice to quit. Legal advice has indicated that the 80- member bowls club could claim to be holding a business tenancy and compensation would have to be paid. Nevertheless, stated the report, notice to quit would free up the site for developers to proceed, provide savings from not having to reprovide the facility and represent "significant additional value" in the East Street scheme. Although featuring as a required element in Waverley's East Street development brief, the bowls club has long posed a stumbling block to the development. Last year, the council was ordered by the Local Government Ombudsman to pay compensation to the club, after delaying the release of a technical report which made clear that new housing overshadowing the green would prevent it from flourishing. This difficulty could be avoided by providing an artificial surface - an option that the club found acceptable. But the executive discounted it this week, after being advised of "significant cost implications for a small number of beneficiaries". It was also suggested that a long period of closure during construction could lead to loss of membership and hit the viability of the club. Another option accepted by the club, but discounted by the executive, was relocation to the Riverside. Cost implications, flood risk and potential difficulties obtaining Environment Agency permission were cited. There were also fears that the capacity for providing the extra car parking needed in connection with the East Street scheme could be hampered. Council leader Gillian Ferguson gave an assurance that there was no question of the bowling green area not staying as an open space in the East Street. And Stewart Edge urged that councillors should not ignore the reasons that the club was important to East Street. "It was a community facility and representative of a sort of style of quiet market town we are trying to continue in Farnham, rather than have it taken over by a set of commercially- dominated features we can see elsewhere." He said the council should make clear that if the bowls club is not to remain, its intention is that it should be retained for a community use. His suggestion was that a nursery should be considered for the pavilion site. For Bob Duffield, secretary of the bowls club, the uncertainty goes on. "I think they are intent on getting rid of us," he declared. He was accepting of a possible move by the club, but not of the threatened notice to quit. "We are anticipating playing there for a few years. We would be very uptight, very upset, because it would be the end of the club after 81 years," he commented. "I think the people of Farnham would be very angry, too. It's surprising the number who like to watch our games." When the development at Brightwells was first mooted, the club believed it would be to its advantage, enabling it to extend its clubhouse by two metres so that indoor bowls could be played during the winter. He is still hopeful that that aim may be achieved on a different site. Mr Duffield met Waverley leisure officer Julie Maskery last week and heard the options being put before the executive. He discounted the possibility of a club merger. "There is only Farnham Bowling Club (in Bear Lane) and I am sure they won't want to be involved." One possibility mentioned by the officer was a site at Monkton Lane, where plans for a new ground for Farnham Rugby Club have been held up by Surrey County Council's suggestion that the site could be quarried. Mr Duffield saw distinct possibilities either for that site, or for a place in the sports complex being proposed by Badshot Lea Football Club at Sandy Hill. "We want that facility available before our existing place is shut down," he said, predicting that any delay would mean the death of the club.
