Glasgow's Broomhill community in bid to save Jordanhill bowling green

Jordanhill Bowling Club held its last meeting in August 2021, after which it ceased to exist due to a lack of members.

Broomhill Community Council said it was informed club proprietors intend to sell the site on Randolph Road and seek a planning application to convert the land into use for residential housing.

Now, a community ownership route is being explored to save the bowling green and turn it into a hub for local residents.

The campaign, launched by the community council on Wednesday, is asking locals for support in the community buyout as well as ideas for potential uses of the space.

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“This would be a great loss as one of the nice public amenities in the area,” said Hector Rufrancos, secretary at Broomhill Community Council.

“So we started investigating the possibility of community ownership, but, in order to do this, we need to have community consent.

“What our campaign is trying to achieve, first of all, is establish whether there is an appetite within the community for us to push ahead and try to seek ownership of this asset.

“If there is support for this idea, then we want to find out what residents would like to see so that an idea can be developed.

“It's very good for us to think, ‘oh, you know, it'd be great to build something there’, but we need to have a positive vision about what we want to create in that space.”

From left to right: Campaign chair Martin Keane, Broomhill Community Council secretary Hector Rufrancos and Cllr Lana Reid-McConnell, Green councillor for the Victoria Park Ward.

Broomhill Community Council would be looking to secure a grant from the Scottish Land Fund for the purchase of the site at open market value prices.

The Scottish Land Fund is made available by the Scottish Government to support urban and rural communities to become more resilient and sustainable through the ownership and management of land and land assets.

A survey launched as part of the campaign allows people to make suggestions on what they want to do with the bowling green.

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Jordanhill Bowling Club, on Glasgow's Randolph Road.

The survey will be available for three weeks, after which the council will hold a public meeting to sift through and discuss the ideas that have been suggested.

Mr Rufrancos added: “Then we'll move forward as a community and try to see what ideas people have coalesced around and design a business plan to make this a credible idea.

“We have some very good examples of other community projects all across Glasgow, like The Bowling Green in Pollokshields for example.

“It could be some sort of multipurpose space, which will make it financially viable, rooms to let for events, but also, perhaps, a kitchen, a community diner, workshops space.

“Something like a tool library would be fantastic. We have the impending climate emergency so we need to be able to reuse stuff and tools are one of the things that is super carbon intensive, but people only ever use them for 15 minutes.”

The survey is available on the Broomhill Community Council website. A newsletter is also available to subscribe to to receive updates.

While it is aimed predominantly at residents, everyone is welcome to complete it and suggest ideas.