Bowls club sold off for homes plan
COMMUNITY BUILDING TO CLOSE AFTER 118 YEARS
A BOWLING green and social club at the centre of a community for 118 years has closed for good after its owners agreed to sell the land for housing.
Pendleton Bowling Club in Eccles Old Road, Salford – known locally as the Belmont – was forced to shut its doors back in March when the coronavirus crisis took hold.
But in the summer, when Covid restrictions were relaxed, the directors decided to keep the bowling green or social club closed – much to the dismay of members, many of whom are elderly and isolated during the pandemic.
At the end of August, the club announced it would close indefinitely as the directors said they were unable to establish a ‘viable business plan’ for it.
Since then, plans to demolish the buildings – originally built as a private residence around 1820 – to make way for housing have been revealed.
Redundancy notices were issued to the steward and stewardess, Tony Clossick and partner Janet, who ran the club for nine years and had been living in the flat above.
Janet said: “We’ve lost our jobs, our livelihoods and the lives we built around the club.”
Tony and Janet moved to Salford from Wigan nearly a decade ago when he was offered the job as steward.
After a ‘major refurbishment’ supported by the brewery, a function room was created to subsidise the costs of providing bowling services for its members.
Speaking on behalf of the directors, Bill Calderbank told the M.E.N. that the board understands members’ disappointment that the club did not reopen after July 4 when the lockdown rules were relaxed.
But he said this was ‘not the only consideration’, as the commercial viability of the club depended on the function facilities, which remained prohibited.
A planning application to demolish the club’s buildings to make way for 26 apartments and eight houses was submitted to Salford council in August.
The plans were submitted by a company called Penbow Limited which was created in 2019, around the time when an offer to purchase the premises, subject to planning permission being granted, was accepted by shareholders.
But the applicant withdrew the request for planning permission in December.
The latest planning application requests permission to demolish the existing structures and build three apartment blocks consisting of 36 one and two-bedroom apartments.