Special Forces fight to keep clubhouse after 500% rent rise
A young Prince Charles rifle shooting at Bisley and, inset, the clubhouse used by Special Forces veterans SPECIAL Forces veterans are locked in a battle to save their clubhouse after being hit by a 500 per cent rent increase.
With legal costs already at £45,000 and rising there are fears that the building – where the “old and bold” can get together to talk about their exploits – will be lost.
The Artists Rifles Clubhouse on the rifle range at Bisley, Surrey, serves as social centre for veterans of the Special Forces and other security services as well as a shooting club.
The freehold of the site is among properties owned by the National Rifle Association charity, whose president is Prince Charles.
The clubhouse lease was bought by former Royal Marine Moss Mustapha and friends for £80,000 in 2003 and it has since been renovated at a cost of £400,000.
But now the charity’s management wants to raise the annual rent from £3,000 a year to £14,700.
The clubhouse takes its name from the Artists Rifles Regiment, formed in 1859, which became the reservist unit 21 SAS (Artists) after the Second World War. One former 21 SAS sergeant wrote of the clubhouse: “It would be a blot on the fine record of the Artists Rifles Regiment and Association if it were to disappear.”
Other clubs at Bisley have met similar demands, with some quitting.
A group of leading Tories, including former Defence ministers Sir Gerald Howarth and Sir Julian Brazier, a former Artists Rifles officer, have written to the Charity Commission.
Mr Mustapha, 58, is now running a crowd-funding appeal to help meet the legal costs of the rent dispute.
He said: “I feel the actions of the NRA are bringing the good name of Prince Charles into disrepute.”
A Charity Commission spokesman said: “The Commission is aware of a contractual dispute between the NRA and the Artists Rifles Association relating to rental terms.
“We are considering whether we have any regulatory role to play in dealing with that dispute.”