A bowling club is looking to councillors to lift a recently imposed planning condition that stops play at 8pm.
Rottingdean Bowling Club, in Falmer Road, said that the 8pm curfew would prevent players from being able to take part in evening matches which traditionally started at 6pm.
Brighton and Hove City Council said that the condition had been imposed to prevent the club from holding “social gatherings in the wintertime with the associated potential noise impacts for neighbours”.
A report to the council’s Planning Committee said: “The (council) does not wish to restrict the time bowls are played, particularly given this has taken place at the site for many years.”
As a result, councillors are being asked to limit activities outside the clubhouse to spectating, playing bowls or entering or leaving the site between 8pm and 10pm.
If the change is approved, the cut-off time would be 10pm, with no activities permitted between 10pm and 7am other than people entering or leaving the site.
Club secretary Margaret Kimber said: “This restriction to 8pm means our members cannot take part in any county events because the time they start is at 6pm and they take at least three hours.
“It’s going to mean a huge gap in our bowling calendar and it means we can’t be involved in any county events at all which would be a great shame because many of them this year were very successful and put Rottingdean on the map.”
And the club’s president Norman Watson said: “I must point out that we already play bowls outside after 8pm and have done so for many, many years.
“To impose such restrictions would severely affect the way the bowling club operates and prevent us from participating in matches that every other bowling club is able to do.
“During the season we play several matches starting at 6pm which don’t finish until about 9pm. However, allowing for late arrivals of opponents and the activity associated with clearing away the equipment, these could finish half an hour or so later than this.
“It is a well-established practice to play in the evening past 8pm and as far as I know every bowling club in Brighton and Hove, and in Sussex, play evening matches in one league or another during the outdoor season (early April to early October).
“Not being able to do so would have a detrimental effect on the club and its members.”
The club was granted planning permission last month to renovate its clubhouse, build a storge unit and replace the changing rooms and toilets.
It has been on the site since 1934 and signed a 25-year lease with the council two years ago, taking on responsibility for the care and maintenance for the buildings and grounds.
Not everyone backed the club. One anonymous neighbour, whose name was redacted by the council, said: “We knew the bowling club would be our neighbours but have been disappointed by the increase in noise disturbance over recent years.
“The amenity we enjoy by being in the garden in the summer is tempered by noise from the bowling club.”
The Planning Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 2pm next Wednesday (6 September). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
Wimbledon has an 11pm curfew. With the whole world watching its hugely important annual Grand Slam tennis tournament.
Resident anenity matters. The application and Conditions here seem reasonable to me. Lawn bowling is fabulous and needs all the support it can be given. And the gentle click of bowls being knocked are not an issue. Its not like the urgent and repetitive thwack of tennis balls or the crack of pool table action.
I think anyone would be hard pushed to prove a noise issue when it comes to bowling.
I think they want to hire out the club house for parties,if you look at the photos you can see how close some of the neighbours are
Well, that’s a separate issue to the sport specifically, and both aspects can be specifically detailed to allow one or the other. Just requires a comprehensive bit of writing.
The juxtaposition between this story (recently imposed planning condition that play stops at 8pm) and the Hove Tennis story on the same day (planning permission requested for lights and play extended to 9pm) is interesting, especially given the difference in light pollution and noise between the two sports.
Whichever way the Council falls on these and similar stories, they should be seen to be consistent to all sports clubs.
You would hope they remain consistent, yes. There’s also all the external factors and unique circumstances that surround each application that may have some significant bearing on a decision. I’ve not attended one of these before, I must admit. It’d be good to learn more about the process.
The bowls club should be able to play beyond 8 its hardly a sport where members will be riotous being that they they are mature enough to respect there neighbours any objection to me seems pointless it’s not like they are going to hold a rave on the green the club has been there for years without incident the neighbours knew it was there when they purchased their properties