Bowling Greens

Nick Boles Excerpts

Wednesday 30th April 2014 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Nick Boles)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Havard, and to discuss a matter that is close to my heart, to my name and to lots of other things.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Barrow and Furness (John Woodcock) on securing a debate on a matter that not only concerns his constituency, but many constituencies, including one he mentioned where I previously stood as the parliamentary candidate—Hove and Portslade. I was very familiar with the bowling greens and bowling clubs there and with the important role that they play in providing recreation, fresh air and social contact for many people, and particularly retired people in that community.

I also welcome the debate because we heard a poetic speech from the hon. Gentleman about the virtues and history of bowling. Conservative Members have a great affection for the great Englishman who was found playing bowls in Plymouth when the Spanish decided to come knocking. It is perhaps a little unfair of me, but I always thought that as a buccaneer in an early version of the global race, Sir Francis was clearly a Conservative supporter.

On protections for bowling greens, I understand entirely the hon. Gentleman’s concerns. In time, when he is serving as a Minister in a Department of State—in 10 or 20 years—he will discover one of the features of Government, which is that people legislate, and create new powers and possibilities, and it is often a very long time before those to whom powers and possibilities have been given take them up with the enthusiasm and gusto that the Government had originally intended. In the Localism Act 2011, as he mentioned, we created powers that had never existed before on the statute book to designate places as local green spaces—in a sense, as a planning matter, to say that a particular piece of ground that is open and green has a value to the community, and people want it to be recognised as that, and then any planning decision needs to take that into account as a material consideration in considering any proposal to build on a local green space.

We also created the concept of an asset of community value and the ability to register various kinds of community assets as assets of community value, with particular protections stemming from that. The asset of community value provision gives a community the ability to say that a particular asset can only be put up for sale—and for sale with a view to convert it into some other use—after the community has been given an opportunity to bid for that asset. They have to register their interest in bidding, and then they have a six-month moratorium in which no transaction or sale can take place in order to be able to put together a bid for an asset that is designated in that way. That provision has great potential power, if only authorities would use it.

[John Woodcock]

It was really useful to take through that provision. Will the Minister say what the definition of a community is in that regard? The concern to which I alluded was that sometimes the bowling club forms a minority in the community, but nevertheless, its needs and the bowling green’s value should not be ignored and overruled by a larger group.

[Nick Boles]

That is a very good question. I shall ask for support—for a definition of a community interest group. Meanwhile, I will go on to explain how it works, then come back to that point.

Ultimately, the point of the Localism Act was to do what it said on the tin, which was to further localism. Localism takes place, as it were, on many different levels. There is the level of individual community groups, neighbourhood groups and the like, and there are the democratically elected authorities that represent them, such as district councils, county councils and metropolitan councils. Ultimately, the decision making about whether to list an asset as an asset of community value, with the protections, therefore, that flow out of that, has to rest with a democratically accountable body, which is the local authority. Therefore, a community interest group needs to persuade its local authority—the only authority that has a democratic mandate to make such decisions on behalf of the public—to accept the proposal to designate something as an asset of community value.

I am fortunately now informed that a community interest group can be just 21 local people on the electoral register in the area in which the asset is located, so hopefully, even if, as the hon. Gentleman says, they are just a subset of the membership of a broader club, finding 21 people to form such a community interest group is within the reach of most existing bowling greens.

I thought that the hon. Gentleman had possibly applied for this debate, in part, to celebrate a decision that was made very recently—indeed, only a week ago. It was one of the very first appeals that we are aware of against a decision by a district council to register a bowls club as an asset of community value. I will spend a little time explaining that decision.

Rother district council decided on 16 September 2013 to include the site of Gullivers bowls club at Bexhill-on-Sea on its list of community assets, and there was an appeal against that decision. The owner of a bowls club, or some other party, quite properly has the right to appeal against a decision in which they have an interest. I am delighted to report that the first-tier tribunal general regulatory chamber, which for some reason hears such appeals rather than the Planning Inspectorate, found that it was entirely proper for Rother district council to register Gullivers bowls club on its list of community assets.

Such decisions include a test of whether the criteria for an asset of community value have been met by a bowls club. An important criterion is that the bowling green is still sustainable in its current use and, as the hon. Gentleman points out, has not become neglected. I was truly shocked to hear of the case he mentioned in which a bowls club’s locks were superglued shut. I have no doubt that if such evidence were presented to any appeal or tribunal, it would dramatically undermine any claims that a bowling green is no longer in use and therefore no longer sustainable. It is clearly not fair if people who want to play bowls cannot access a bowling green.

I hope the hon. Gentleman and those who are keen on the sport of bowls will take encouragement from this debate that powers and provisions already exist. The local green space power is important but, if anything, the asset of community value power is more important. Within that power—he talked about the right to buy—there is a community right to bid. A community can say, “This is an asset that we want to preserve in its current use, and we want to have a bit of time to raise money through a local appeal, or whatever it is, to acquire that asset and retain it in its existing use.”

[John Woodcock]

I thank the Minister for giving way again. This is all helpful. He mentioned at the beginning of his speech the difficulties found between setting out the Government’s intentions, putting in place the needed legislative changes and the time it takes for those changes to reach fruition. I am sure he has a sense of the difficulty of translating those intentions on the ground, even once the changes have been made. How will he monitor how the changes actually work on the ground and address our fear that the powers are either not known or seen as too bureaucratic?

[Nick Boles]

The hon. Gentleman asks a reasonable question, and to some extent I throw it back at him. I am happy to work with him, and with any associations that exist in the sport, to write to every bowling green and bowling club in the country to make them aware of the powers under the Localism Act to register as an asset of community value and as a local green space, to draw their attention to the two bowling greens of which we are aware—there is not only the Rother case that we have just discussed but a bowling green in Camden, too—that have been registered as assets of community value and to make them aware that the bowling green in Rother was able to sustain that position against a challenge. The designation was upheld on appeal. Hopefully, we will be able to encourage other bowling greens to take up that right, because it may be the case that, first, they are not aware of the right and that, secondly, even local authorities are not necessarily completely up to speed on how the right works and how other people are using it. I am happy to ensure that bowling greens and bowling clubs across the country are aware of those rights, but I might need to work with him and through him to do so.

Finally, the hon. Gentleman invited me to join a match. I hope he understands, as he would if he had ever witnessed me take part in any athletic activity, and certainly any activity involving a moving ball, that I decided long ago at the start of my political career that I would say no to any invitation to partake in a sport. If it satisfies him, however, I would be pleased to attend and cheer on the more able participants.