Camps Bay bowling club hits out at ‘vilification’ of its members

© Obie Oberholzer

The Camps Bay Bowling Club has broken its media silence on the fracas about its lease and appealed to the City of Cape Town and the Camps Bay Preparatory School for an amicable solution that will suit both parties.

‘The steadfast and constant attack on the Camps Bay Bowling Club and vilification of its members based on liquor sales, age and recently race is unacceptable and not a valid reason for the cancellation of its lease – demanded by the school supporters – which has been in place for nearly 100 years,’ said Matthew Bater, club president.

Bater said the club had not been allowed to participate in discussions about the proposed expansion of the school on to its land.

Meanwhile, the Concerned Parents’ Group, set up in 2012 by parents who could not get a place at the school, has stepped up its campaign after the sub-council approved a recommendation to allow the bowling club to continue renting the land until 2018.

In letters to newspapers, the group has called for ‘schools, not subsidised booze’ and accused the bowling club of holding on to the land for a team of mainly white males and allowing a ‘free flow’ of liquor on the property.

But Bater said: ‘The sale of liquor by the club is within the bounds of its licence, its lease and standard practices of sporting clubs.’ He said club membership was far from diminishing and it had recently been promoted to the third division.

The Camps Bay Prep School Expansion Project dates back to 2011 when the then principal, Nancy Roussopoulos, and a parent, Sandy van Hoogstraten, identified the ‘undersubscribed’ bowling club land as a suitable new site for the school.

Last month, the sub-council approved a recommendation that would allow the city to lease the land to the Western Cape Education Department, for the expansion of the school, in four years time.

While considered ‘a victory of sorts’, the Concerned Parents’ Group said the delay until 2019 would still preclude scores of children from attending the school.

Bater said the school should consider a partition which would allow the school and the club to both use the land immediately.

Deputy mayor Ian Neilson said a report on the matter would be sent to the city’s immovable property adjudication committee before going to the mayoral committee and then council for a final decision.

Cape Argus

Posted at Apr 16, 2014
by Editor in Cape Town  |  IOL Property News