Developers Submit Fresh Bid to Build Flats at Former Finnieston Bowling Club

Nixon Blue’s fourth bid for Corunna Bowling Club site includes 20 flats, public space and community room

Drew Sandelands, Local Democracy Reporter

Developers who have faced strong opposition to their efforts to build flats at a former Finnieston bowling club have fresh plans to redevelop the site.

Hundreds of residents have opposed Nixon Blue’s previous attempts to erect homes on the old Corunna Bowling Club land at St Vincent Crescent.

But a fourth bid to develop the site has now been received by Glasgow City Council . It reveals the company wants to provide 20 flats as well as new publicly-accessible open space and a community room.

Nixon Blue also intends to demolish the current clubhouse, which community campaigners have been keen to take over.

The developers argue the reuse of the building is “economically unviable” and the site is now in a “state of dilapidation” due to vandalism, creating an “eyesore”.

They have also said knocking down the clubhouse will allow “the formation of and access to a new publicly accessible open amenity space that currently does not exist in the immediate vicinity”

“This, in our view, provides significant benefit to the wider community,” the developers claim.

Corunna Bowling Club, established around 1860, closed in 2017 after “years of dwindling membership”. Plans for 39 homes on the site were refused in 2018 and an appeal was rejected in 2019.

A second bid for 36 homes in 2021 was withdrawn before another application, for 20 homes and new public gardens, was refused later that year. An appeal over conservation area consent for the planned demolition was dismissed in February 2022.

An independent reporter, appointed by Scottish Ministers, ruled the demolition of the Corunna clubhouse, without planning permission in place, could detract from the character of the St Vincent Crescent conservation area.

More than 300 objections to Nixon Blue’s last bid to develop the bowling green land were submitted to the council.

They said the site was protected open space and contributes to the “character and appearance” of the St Vincent Crescent conservation area.

Planners also believed Nixon Blue had failed to show the club was incapable of repair and re-use. The applicant had argued the “fresh approach” would have a “positive and transformational effect”.

Alasdair Edwards, the reporter, believed the clubhouse has a “neutral impact” on the conservation area, but, without planning permission, there “is a risk that the site is cleared and left vacant”.

This “could be, depending on how it was left and managed, visibly significant and detract from the character and appearance of the conservation area”, he added.

The developers now want to build a five-storey block containing 14 three-bedroom flats, five two-bedroom flats and a four-bedroom duplex townhouse.

There would be a private roof garden and communal garden for residents as well as 21 spaces in an underground car park.

Public open space and a new community room are included too. Nixon Blue has drafted heads of terms for the management of the community access to these areas.

They propose two options: selling the community room to Friends of St Vincent Crescent Conservation Area (FSVCCA) for “an agreed value set by an agreed valuation surveyor” or leasing the building out at a nominal sum.

It states the FSVCCA has “suggested that they may use the former clubhouse as a community hub”. “Nixon Blue Ltd proposes to demolish the former clubhouse as part of the new planning application.

“The former clubhouse has been severely vandalised and is in a state of dilapidation. Nixon Blue Ltd proposes to offer back a small community meeting room building for use to FSVCCA as well as making the landscaping/garden area to the front of the development accessible to the local community.”

An application for conservation area consent for the demolition of the clubhouse has also been submitted.