A KINGSLEY businessman has hit out at district planners this week for pulling his planning application from a meeting where it looked set to be given the go ahead.
Colin Jakeway, manager and owner of Kingsley Tennis Centre, told The Herald that his plans to replace The Dome, in Main Road, with a new steel clad building to house four indoor courts were withdrawn from the agenda just 45 minutes before the district councilÕs north planning committee meeting was due to start on Thursday of last week.
Case officer Keith Oliver was recommending that district councillors grant planning permission for the proposals, which would also see the two existing outdoor clay courts retained.
However, concerns that a five-page report to members did not provide sufficient information for them to make a decision resulted in the application being pulled from the agenda.
Now Mr Jakeway has claimed that the officers should not have left it to less than a hour before the meeting started to decide that the report was not thorough enough.
ÒWe are being painted in a very difficult light,Ó he said.
ÒThere is no way that our planning application should have been withdrawn. It is pretty out of order. It was withdrawn 45 minutes before the meeting actually started by the head of planning, Ian Ellis. The case officerÕs report has been on his table for more than two weeks. Why has it taken that amount of time to decide to withdraw it?
ÒThe plans have been publicly known for 18 months and it has not been changed one iota, except that we have reduced the size of the building by two metres.Ó
The proposals have been strongly opposed by Kingsley Parish Council, who fear that if the tennis centre business failed, for whatever reason, the building could be used for industrial purposes.
But Mr Jakeway said: ÒThat is not actually possible because our lease from the family that currently own the land prohibits any sporting use, apart from tennis, let alone industrial use, Ó he said.
On the same day that the application was withdrawn the district council posted a notice on its website that it was reviewing leisure facilities in the district and wanted residentsÕ views.
Mr Jakeway said that if planning permission for his new-look tennis centre was given, he would be continuing to provide a facility for children and adults alike.
ÒWe are a private company who want no help from East Hampshire District Council to provide a facility which is the only one for 20 miles,Ó he said.
ÒWe make money, yes, but that money not only pays staff, it comes back into the club. We hold special days to raise money for charities and we run childrenÕs activities.Ó