Some of you will be aware that The Civil Service Sports Club in Recreation Road Plymouth has been demolished and is now completely levelled. No planning application has been approved yet but now the Civil Service Sport Council will be hoping to get permission to proceed to the approval stage, so it is still in the balance. There have been a number of objections to the existing plan.
What has been most distressing is the cavalier manner in which a so called Sports Club organisation has disposed of a couple of bowling greens by trashing them so that they will never be used for their bowling purposes again. Juggernauts have criss-crossed the greens and levelled off everything with rubble. The rubble was then compacted. Greens are now like demolition tips. It appears that the Civil Service Sports Council wants to render greens unusable ever so that the next stage of the planning process can proceed unimpeded. Fait accompli.
One must question what the role of the Civil Service Sports Council is in terms of the maintenance of Sports facilities and ethos in Plymouth and nationwide. They seem intent in cashing in their chips and selling off what they can to the highest bidder. No thought is given to the retention of pitches, the sporting needs of locals or the keeping of green spaces. if they can get away with building on them. One can only hope that Plymouth City Council will not strike a faustian bargain with this organisation and negotiate a compromise with loss of pitches in so called 'mitigation' elsewhere. Plymouth City Council has a big responsibility here.
