Plans to relocate Coventry's indoor bowls facilities will cost £2million

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Coventry set to get a new indoor bowls venue - despite road safety concerns



Coventry is set to get a brand new indoor bowls facility after a razor-edge vote settled narrowly in favour of the controversial plans.

The city council’s planning committee voted by four to three in favour of plans for the new facility to be built at Avenue Bowls Club in Gaveston Road.

It follows months of protests by residents and the committee voted to defer the decision twice, in July and September, due to concerns over its location.

The committee was presented with two petitions – one signed by 228 people urged councillors to reject the plans due to concerns over potential traffic and parking problems, while another, signed by 118 people asked the committee to consider other locations for the facility.

The committee was split on whether to support the application.

Cllr Allan Andrews said: “To me this represents a huge missed opportunity and lack of ambition as to what this venue could be for Coventry.”

Questions were also raised by the committee relating to public transport to and from the venue. Planning officers replied that there are seven bus routes within walking distance. In relation to questions on road safety, officers added that there have been two crashes in the past five years at the junction of Gaveston Road and Hollyfast Road and that neither caused any injuries.

Cllr Naeem Akhtar said: “I previously raised concerns about access, and I stand by those concerns. However, if we refuse this application based on just access, then that access will still be used by the club. Just refusing on the basis of access wouldn’t be fair.

“We have done everything possible to find a suitable alternative to this site and if we refuse it with no good reason I’m sure it will go to appeal, the appeal will be allowed and costs awarded which will have to be paid by the city council.

“I’m satisfied that officers have done everything possible to find an alternative venue, but unfortunately there is none.”

Cllrs Pervez Akhtar, Naeem Akhtar, Dr Randhir Auluck and committee chairman Cllr Lindsley Harvard all voted in favour of the application.

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Coventry councillor says he's been booted off planning committee - after voting against bowls club backed by council leaders



A LONG-STANDING Labour councillor says he has been unusually removed from the planning committee at Coventry City Council – after voting against a controversial application for a bowls club, which had been keenly supported by leading councillors.

It is despite the law requiring planning committees to be politically neutral, without political interference.

It comes after Councillor John McNicholas voted against the planning application at planning committee last week for the new bowls club in Coundon, which had been opposed by hundreds of petitioning residents.

Council leaders have been accused of Stalin-style bully-boy tactics.

Coun McNicholas (Labour, Lower Stoke) himself appears to be questioning the reasons for his unceremonious removal from the committee in mid-December, judging from a private email he appears to have sent to a resident, seen by the Coventry Observer.

In it, he writes: “Thanks for your kind words.

“I did what I thought was right in committee based on planning matters.

“Just for information I have been removed from planning with immediate effect without any reason being given. You can draw your own conclusions.”

Councillors sitting on the planning committee are usually only removed in any re-shufffle after elections in May.

Matthew Batson, who has stood against Labour as an Independent and UKIP councillor in elections, said: “It seems Stalinist bully-boy tactics are still alive and kicking in Coventry’s Labour-controlled democratic utopia.”

The law requires planning committees to make decisions outside of political interference.

Councillors sitting on it are required to make ‘quasi judicial’ decisions – deciding how to vote purely on ‘material planning considerations’ – without outside influence from the leaders of parties they represent.

The plot thickens...

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Council withdraws plans for £2m bowls facility in Coventry

Coventry City Council has withdrawn plans to build a new national indoor bowls facility in Coundon.

Planning permission was previously granted for the development late in 2019, but due to changes in the world, namely Covid-19 and Brexit, the council says it has now been scrapped.

The council had planned to build the £2 million facility at the existing Avenue Bowls Club on Gaveston Road, in Coundon, but will now look at investing money in the popular sport elsewhere in the city.

A statement on the council's website reads: "Financial pressures on the construction industry created by a mixture of Covid and Brexit during that time have also led to fears that the agreed scheme has also become financially unaffordable within the agreed budget.

"It has led to a joint decision by Coventry City Council and the Avenue Bowling Club to no longer pursue the scheme.

"The council will now start feasibility work on reviewing indoor bowling provision across the city as part of an existing commitment to create indoor bowls facilities."

The decision will be welcomed by residents who raised concerns about the development going up in a “land-locked residential site”.

Councillor Mattie Heaven, for the Wainbody ward, was opposed to the development from the start and offered her support to unhappy residents.

She told CoventryLive: "It’s really positive they have decided not to go ahead with it. Had they gone ahead with it would have been a waste of money.

"To have a national indoor club, without enough parking, not enough room for ambulances - I have been passionate about it as I knew it wasn’t the right location.

"I think it’s the right decision they have made. They realised this is not the right location and they will find an alternative which will be more accessible and more central.

"So I’m really delighted they will look at a different location. I know the residents are really happy too."

Glenn Hartwell, a spokesman for residents who opposed the redevelopment, said: “This decision is greatly welcomed and hopefully will now ensure that a more suitable location can be sought, preferably in the city centre with sufficient transport links and where the sport of indoor bowling can flourish and people can access readily at a premiership venue.”

A combined statement from the Coundon Residents Group reads: "The core group representing Coundon Residents are relieved and understandably very pleased to hear that the Indoor Bowls provision at the Avenue Bowls site, Gaveston Road, is no longer going to go ahead.

"We trust and hope that Coventry City Council will now, through a new feasibility study, find a more suitable location accessible to all, such as the one raised in the Petition to consider the IKEA building as a suitable venue.”

Local Sherbourne ward councillor Ryan Simpson said: “Right from the beginning, residents in Coundon were telling the council that this location was totally unviable. Sadly it's taken years for them to be proven right.

“Although the deal has collapsed, there are serious questions to be asked about its failure. How much has already been spent on this project? How did the Council never foresee the problems with choosing this site? I will be making it my mission to find the answers.”