“We’ve been left behind,” Neil Patrickson, fixture secretary at Cromer Marrams Bowls Club, said as he sat in the 87-year-old club’s rundown clifftop clubhouse.
Built in 1936, the North Norfolk District Council-owned building is in desperate need of investment, with leaks in its ceiling and windows.
Plans to repair the Runton Road clubhouse were put on hold by the council earlier this year.
The delayed plans were for a £400,000 project to demolish and rebuild the clubhouse, also providing three other business units.
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But senior figures at the club have said they just want the building to be refurbished to make it “safe and watertight”.
“The building doesn’t owe anyone anything – it’s old,” Mr Patrickson said.
“There are leaks in the ceiling and windows. All the repairs we’ve made are just patching things up.
“There’s still a long way to go. We’re now being asked to put forward what we want, but we’ve also got to futureproof it to sustain it for years to come.”
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He said the club itself is “still thriving”, despite the number of people playing in Norfolk’s bowls leagues “dwindling year on year”.
Although councillors are in support of the redevelopment, they have acknowledged that the plans require careful consideration.
Tim Adams, leader of NNDC and a Cromer town councillor, has said because the bowls club is near the Runton Road car park which has thousands of people using it every day, the council needs to capture that footfall.
“It would be a real shame to lose the club,” Mr Adams said.
“The building is beyond economic repair and will be difficult to salvage.
“It’s been there a long time – since the 1930s – and it was never constructed to last that long.
“We’ve got to make it stack up financially.”
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