Homes plan set to bowl over club

Milburn Leisure has run the Milburn Centre, home of the Hull and District Indoor Bowling Club, on Wheeler Street, for more than two decades.

But the one acre site it and its car park occupies was sold to housing quango Gateway for more than 1m three years ago.

At the time Gateway wanted to build eight houses on the site as part of wider regeneration plans.

Government inspectors ruled in January, following a public inquiry, that it was "an important recreational and social resource for the local community and others in the wider area" and should not be part of the redevelopment."

Residents who use the centre to take part in bowling sessions and some of the many other activities run were surprised to learn that Gateway still intends to demolish the building and turn it back into green space when the lease runs out next March.

The privately-run centre has six international bowling rinks and four function rooms and bars. It is home to the Hull branch of the Royal Air Forces Association, The Budgerigar Society, and other clubs and is also used for fitness and dance classes.

Chairman and secretary of the Hull and District Indoor Bowling Club John Trever argued the case to keep the Milburn Centre at a public inquiry last September.

He said: "We had a very fair hearing and when it was published in January we were delighted to see that the Milburn Centre was excluded from the area action plan."

Mr Trever can't understand why officials are apparently ignoring the report's recommendations – which has since been ratified by the council's planning committee, the Cabinet as well as full council.

He said: "We feel as if we are banging our heads against a brick wall. It's almost as though the bureaucratic machine is riding roughshod over us."

Club president Bill Shirley added: "They are saying that in April 2011 the place is coming down. They keep suggesting we use another place on the Marina but we can't play Yorkshire league matches or anything else if we don't have the right dimensions for the rinks.

"The nearest ones which would come under the dimensions are South Cave and Hornsea. But people like myself in their 70s can't be travelling all the backlanes to Hornsea in the middle of winter."

Former owner John Milburn said: "We do all sorts of things. It's a hive of activity. It is just so silly.

"People can't believe that they are going to knock it down." In their report inspectors Cliff Hughes and Kevin Ward said retaining the centre was not likely to have a significant effect on the housing development "nor would it undermine the overall strategy of renewal.

"The inclusion of the Milburn Leisure Centre and its car park as part of the Amy Johnson site is therefore not justified."

Pauline Davis, from Gateway, said the planning application for building on the Amy Johnson site was approved last December, before the area action plan was adopted. There will eventually be 600 houses on the site, along with a park, allotments and green spaces.

She said: "We appreciate the problems that the loss of this facility represents for the club and we are working with them to find a solution.

"We are actively looking at all the options and will be discussing this in detail with the club over the coming weeks."