Club rules out sports hall neighbour in Highland Perthshire

Nov 4 2011 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A LONG-running campaign to fund a sports facility in Highland Perthshire has fallen foul of its would-be neighbours.

For more than 10 years Dunkeld and Birnam Leisure Group has been working to bring an indoor sports hall to the town, including raising £100,000 and investigating potential sites.

But part of that plan has now hit the buffers after members of Dunkeld and Birnam Recreation Club vetoed any chance for the leisure group to build next door.

The decision was condemned yesterday by tennis club member Helen Taylor.

She attended a specially-called meeting on Sunday to discuss the leisure group plan, but was surprised to find the meeting turned out to be a chance to vote on two motions.

The motions, which were carried, put to a stop any plans to build on Recreation Club land, and to prevent the sale of land bought in an agreement in 1979.

Mrs Taylor told the PA “dedicated members” of the group had been making progress to their goal.

But after attending the meeting, she said: “I hope the orchestrators of the special general meeting are proud of themselves.

“I thought we lived in a community that cared about each other. Sadly there seem to be people who don’t give a stuff for the greater good of the community.

“Shame on you all.”

Her stance was supported by Councillor Alasdair Wylie, who has previously added his backing to the leisure group and is also a long-standing member of the recreation club.

He said: “I am very disappointed indeed that such a short-sighted and negative move should put so much hard work and such evident potential community benefit at risk.”

And he added that he was “extremely angry” over the conduct of a few members of the club, who he said had “manipulated both procedure and other members”.

“At the centre of this manipulation was quite deliberately keeping secret from members that very specific motions were to be put to the sgm, (no mention on the agenda), until the meeting had actually started,” he said.

“Procedurally this is extremely suspect but when Mrs Taylor questioned it she was rebuffed. The meeting had been packed with a number of members who clearly knew what was up.

“For a charity which only exists, as one senior member pointed out, because it was given ground by Atholl Estates over 30 years ago for the purpose of sport and recreation in the community, this is astonishing behaviour.

“I hope that the wider membership will think again.”

But club chairman Robert Preston, who also chaired the meeting, said he’d received no complaint about the meeting and invited people to approach him if they had concerns.

He also said the carried motions were procedurally correct in terms of the club, which allows groups of around 10 people to call meetings in this way.

He told us: “Prior to 2004 the land bought by us for £10 was subject to the feudal supremacy, which meant it was not open to sold on.

“The law changed but on Sunday I would say what was voted on effectively restored the position of the club and the land we had in 2004.

“To me it’s a competent action.”

He added that the two groups have been locked in talks for a number of years, including the offering of land around the site, but there had been issues surrounding the Atholl Estates’ land, which currently forms part of the club’s car park.

“The land here is among a set of options the leisure group has been looking at,” Mr Preston added.

“We offered them a piece of unused ground and I understand there was talk over a section of a Church of Scotland-owned football ground.”

Mr Preston’s opposite number on the leisure group, solicitor Kevin Lancaster, said there was a sense of “extreme disappointment”.

He confirmed the campaigners had repeatedly approached the recreation club, made up of a bowling club and tennis club, throughout October, but their requests were unanswered.

He said: “What bothers us most about these decisions was the process behind it.

“It appears there was a hidden agenda. We have heard murmurings over the past year to 18 months from the rec club that there were people unhappy over our plans because they felt the sports hall wouldn’t be viable.

“But, rather than speak to us about it, it got to this stage. This all went against the very positive talks we had with the club prior to that.

“From our point of view there is a chance for a positive community facility in Dunkeld, a welcome addition, and we have had consultations and feasibility studies to support us along the way.”