Q: Tell me about Mount Florida Community Trust
A: In January of 2019 I found out of the probable closure of Mount Florida Bowling Club and the possibility of the redevelopment of the land. I have lived in the Area for over 40 years but locally to the club for 14 years and to me it was a sad day for what is an institution and a landmark within the area. I got to know very quickly I was only one of many local residents that felt the same, and quickly we had set up a campaign to try and engage with the club to save it long term. In March 2019 it became clear that the club had made the decision to close and sell the land to a developer subject to Planning, so we set up a Community Trust to try to retain the club and land for green-space and leisure use.
Q: So tell me about The Trust and it’s aims.
A: The trust is set up with 7 Directors and Committee of approximately 20 local people keen to work towards retaining the site and hopefully repurpose for a range of local community interests. The Trust is set as a company limited by guarantee with Ministerial approval with the hope of taking over the site with a community ‘Right to Buy’ scenario.
Q: Why did you get involved ?
A: I felt I suppose that if I didn’t say what I felt about the demise of the club then I would be failing the future community. I soon realised I was not alone and at the first community consultation into the situation we had over 60 like-minded people all willing to play a part.
Q What hurdles have you come up against?
A: Well I think it has all been a serious of hurdles and they keep coming, I think it is the nature of the process. We all have great intentions in what we are doing but not everyone has the same opinion. Every process from setting up a limited company, getting ministerial approval petitioning the local community to organising website content, and Facebook has all come with issues however we have a fantastic team with a real can do attitude and have all put in loads of their free time to make it happen with absolutely no funding available to us as yet.
Q Under your proposals what are you hoping the site can be used for?
A: We all believe there is still a place for Mount Florida Bowling Club in the future however in order to make the site viable, we need to repurpose possibly one of the greens and the club house into a community hub and space to encourage increased usage, it would be great to get participation for Mount Florida Primary School and community groups looking for space to meet, one big priority is to address the needs of the local community and evaluate what is needed or is lacking. A meeting space for less abled persons with adequate facilities to adapt to children and adults alike with specific needs that are not ordinarily available locally.
Q What is the hope for the future ?
A: We need to keep up the momentum, we believe a planning application will be going in any day for the conversion of the site into flats and townhouses. We are fully opposed to this and we also have Mount Florida Community Council backing our campaign. We need to oppose the site being repurposed from leisure to housing, this is not in the interest of the community and will be yet another lost piece of green space to developers. At present we have 4 huge sites being developed for housing; Mansionhouse, The Old Victoria Hospital Site, the Old Holmlea Primary Site and the Old Scottish Power Site at Cathcart. All these developments will be putting a strain on our local schools and green space and hence we have to try and keep what little we have left.