Hope for end to Camps Bay bowling club saga

A five-year-long wrangle over the Camps Bay Bowling Club being incorporated into the Camps Bay Preparatory School could finally be resolved.

Cape Town - A five-year-long wrangle over the Camps Bay Bowling Club being incorporated into the Camps Bay Preparatory School could finally be resolved this week.

The Municipal Planning Tribunal is set to consider a decision by the city council to rezone several erven totalling 6 710m2 to allow for the school to expand on to the property.

The bowling club, which is double the size of the school, enjoys the use of the council property until 2018.

“The arguments put forward by the objectors are not agreed with as they relate to the limited use of the property for a small sector of the local population that does not have a broader social benefit that could be provided by the use of the property for a place of instruction,” said the council’s report.

But the Camps Bay Ratepayers’ and Residents’Association (CBRRA) is digging in its heels, and plans to make an oral appeal to the tribunal on Tuesday to consider shared use of the property.

CBRRA chairman Chris Willemse said the facility was not exclusively used by members of the bowling club as suggested, and that the hall was frequented daily for a variety of recreational and sports activities.

“The retention of a 100-year-old bowling club should take precedence,” he said.

“Our point of view is the shared option is the correct way to do it. More time and effort need to be put into it.”

At present there are no plans to build new buildings on the site, rather the school would convert the existing buildings into classrooms and use the grounds for sports and play areas.

Originally the Western Cape government had wanted to buy the property to meet the needs of the ever-growing, overcrowded school.

But after negotiations with the city, a 10-year, non-negotiable lease was agreed to in June 2014.

Last year, the Western Cape High Court ruled in favour of the bowling club, after attempts to change the club’s lease conditions to give the school immediate access to the space.

Willemse said the city’s suggestion that the Camps Bay and Glen bowling clubs should merge, would not work given the city’s plans to redevelop Maiden’s Cove.

According to a report that will be considered by the tribunal, there are no other viable sites within the area for the school to expand physically.

The school has been battling to overcome overcrowding for a number of years. It’s had to erect makeshift classrooms and make use of the public park.

While objectors said half the pupils at the school were not residents of the area and that the bowling club’s present usage represented a broader spectrum of the Camps Bay community, the Western Cape education department said children from outside the area could not be denied an opportunity to attend the school.

lindsay.dentlinger@inl.co.za

Cape Argus