What a Bowls Up!
What a Bowls Up! |
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A number of people have contacted Hayle Eye following the starting of the works to provide a new outdoor bowling green at Ellis Park, opposite Penpol School. There is little doubt that the correct planning rules seem to have been followed with notices being published in the local press yet a number of residents claim they new nothing of the plans until the diggers arrived earlier this week. One resident, who did not want to be named, told Hayle Eye that no notices had been put up in Penpol Avenue or Penpol Road. Contrary to usual practice no householders received a letter informing them of the development next to their homes 'It was almost as if they were trying to keep the plan quite', they said
Things came to a head on Monday when a JCB arrived and started preparing the ground. Residents, unaware of the bowling club plans mounted a protest at what they saw as the desecration of the open space beside their homes.
Diggers at Ellis Park
Other residents have questioned what they see as a back-door development on open space which is supposed to be in the protected 'Hayle Conservation Area' and have argued that the land, which currently enjoys free public access, should not be hijacked for the private use of a few individuals. Concerns have also been raised over the parking and increased traffic opposite the school and in a narrow road with no pavement.
Despite the protests however, it is likely that the residents have left it too long to complain. Planning Permission was sought, the rules were followed and permission was granted. It is virtually unknown for protests of this sort to succeed after planning permission has been approved.
The land at the centre of the dispute was gifted to the town by Major and Mrs Ellis as a 'sports and recreational area'. Until very recently, when the Football Club moved to High Lanes, the area in question was in fact a football pitch with small clubhouse/changing rooms, and it was surrounded by a high wire fence. The pitch fell into disuse following the move of the football club, and the clubhouse/changing rooms were vandalised and eventually pulled down.
In line with its designation as a 'sports and recreational area' a number of schemes were put forward including a play area, Basketball Park and a Skate Park. It was felt that none of these were appropriate given the proximity of housing.
Hayle bowls club used to rent their green off Queensway - just behind Hayle Bowl, but the land was bought by a developer and the Bowls club evicted. The bowls club were forced to look for a new home and we believe that Hayle Town Council and Penwith District Council suggested that the site of the old football pitch may be appropriate.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case it does beg the question as to why so many local people seem to have been unaware of the what was going on and only found out when it was too late for them to object in the statutory fashion.
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