Southern Counties SG, What's happening?

[Jan Powell]

Does anyone know what's happening as far as the future of Southern Counties SG is concerned? I heard a couple of weeks ago that they intend to honour their commitments this year then close during the winter. Does anyone know any different?

I am looking to book some activities next year in the area and could do with knowing.

 

[Hotshot100]

Best to speak to the ground. I've heard rumours along these lines, all to do with lead pollution of the adjoining farmers land I believe.

 

[ips]

Lots of speculation as far as i can tell we prob wont know until it happens .. Or not.

Yes they have shot fall issues but only concerning the bottom layout afaik

 

[** Pending Removal **]

I was told this weekend that they have now got planning to turn it into a solar panel farm.

I hope that Barry will think long and hard before doing that. After losing Newnham Park.....they cannot afford to lose another trap ground down there.

 

[ips]

Beggar me thats not good news.

 

[snipey]

Nicola, we can't afford to lose another ground down here full stop!

Already heard that if SC go the only other local registered trap/skeet ground would immediately put there prices up!

Loads for rumours flying, although the court case has gone quiet!? But it don't think that have done themselves any favours by becoming greedy, £39 for comps and they can't be bother to hoop the skeet targets. 30 odd pence per practise clay and don't honour no birds apparently that's in the price!

(null)

 

[** Pending Removal **]

Nicola, we can't afford to lose another ground down here full stop!

Already heard that if SC go the only other local registered trap/skeet ground would immediately put there prices up!

Loads for rumours flying, although the court case has gone quiet!? But it don't think that have done themselves any favours by becoming greedy, £39 for comps and they can't be bother to hoop the skeet targets. 30 odd pence per practise clay and don't honour no birds apparently that's in the price!

(null)

Yes all this is very sad if it is true.....I am glad I do not live down there.The South West shooters do not seem to be having any luck.......I think they have had the same director for donkeys years (who is the ground manager at SC) and they also have the recently ex-chair of the cpsa....looking after the shooters down there. Not sure what help the Cpsa has been in this situation though as we have not seen much about it in the mags or on Cpsa's website.

For instance...has anyone seen anything like a petition to sign? Or a 'write to our MP' to save one of the best shooting grounds in the country (for trap and skeet)???

I would have expected that our Olympic focused board and CEO...would have been straight out banging the jungle drums to drum up support from our 23,000 members...?

Mind you....that probably would only get the odd few people doing it....because of the standard cry...'we are not really very political...we just want to shoot'...........

Well this could be a typical example.....where none interest in being pro-active.....leads to non-shooting without a 2-3 hour trip.

Anyway I would have thought that a bigger shout could have been made by our NGB's .........has anyone heard what Bictsf's contribution has been to saving this ground? They have the political connection to the government in the guise of Sarah Daly and Mr Fellows who sit on BICTSF and who are the reps who sit on British Shooting...and hence they are involved in any deal with UK Sport funding decisions. Has any appeal been made by them to these government authorities to help save the ground under crisis by putting in any professional negotiators between the 2 parties involved?

But then this is all politics.........and that is a dirty word these days......

 

[Hawkeye]

Forget it , move on. Great opportunity for someone . Any sport's grant's available?

 

[** Pending Removal **]

Forget it , move on. Great opportunity for someone . Any sport's grant's available?

Actually you have a point Bryan......what happened to the shot net from the 2012 Olympics? I know the gantries to put it on are pricey, but the ground owner is into heavy construction equipment. One of the Olympic legacy tick boxes was to leave as much moveable infrastructure to English Grounds......so where is it?

I am sure that some of our 23,000 membership are in businesses that either make or hire or use those gantries ???? and could offer valuable advice??

 

[Hawkeye]

I was thinking of a gap in the market for a new facility elsewhere

 

[Hawkeye]

Anyone know any farmer's or land owner's in the SW ?

 

[blaser f3]

Anyone know any farmer's or land owner's in the SW ?

I think you'll find its not the land that would be the problem ,its getting planning permission to create a shooting ground on the land ! and in these p.c times councils generally (plus residents ) are very anti shooting

 

[blaser f3]

Actually you have a point Bryan......what happened to the shot net from the 2012 Olympics? I know the gantries to put it on are pricey, but the ground owner is into heavy construction equipment. One of the Olympic legacy tick boxes was to leave as much moveable infrastructure to English Grounds......so where is it?

I am sure that some of our 23,000 membership are in businesses that either make or hire or use those gantries ???? and could offer valuable advice??

I seem to remember (in the deep recessesof my mind ) that somebody said gantrys netting ect. had been sold to Brazil for the Rio Olympics ,but this could be a rumour ! There  is a man on this forum that might be able to shed a light on this ( as he seems ,by his own admission to have ended up with various olympic bits and pieces )

 

[** Pending Removal **]

I was thinking of a gap in the market for a new facility elsewhere

I know and as Blaser says it is difficult to set up new ones, especially that large. It can take a lot of time and money to build such a facility from new.

SC has been added to over the years to make it simply 'the' best facility that we have.

I am surprised that all of our NGB's have not got involved in a pro-active way to save it.

I could be wrong and there may be behind the scenes work? But as for public perception....we have only seen a few newspaper articles written in an unusual way.

No petition......?

No appeal to government funders to help. It seems that we can put high level negotiators in countries all over the world......but we cannot manage to get a high level negotiator to get in between 2 farmers......for the good of shooting...!

 

[WezC]

If you could get the planning, how expensive can it be to setup 3 skeet layouts a compak, 1 DTL and a say 12 Sporting ?

In the scheme of setting up a new business, it can't be that much surely £50.000 ?

You could do it all from wood, including the clubhouse.

Make it members only and keep it pristine so noone minds paying the membership fees.

Are there enough shooters down here in Devon to make it pay though ?

Hmmmmmmmm........

Wez

www.wezmoto.co.uk

 

[** Pending Removal **]

£50K wont buy you the land but it might get you the club house built.

Parcel of land........well that could be a few acres (don't forget the 300 fall out from each shooting position).....

Traps.....well ....how long is a piece of string £800 each or many be more if they are fancy traps....to throw rabbits , bats etc etc (5 auto Helice traps are £20k on the cheaper ones ad £50K on the more reliable ones.

Cannot get crap quality if it is to be a commercial venue.....heaven forbid if they break down.

Staff and facilities.....hmmmm ever priced a commercial kitchen.....

Then on top of that most clubs do not always have living on site so......alarm systems etc etc......

Nah......it would be hundreds of thousands to set up similar.......even if you could get the ground.

 

[Hotshot100]

£50K wont buy you the land but it might get you the club house built.

Parcel of land........well that could be a few acres (don't forget the 300 fall out from each shooting position).....

Traps.....well ....how long is a piece of string £800 each or many be more if they are fancy traps....to throw rabbits , bats etc etc (5 auto Helice traps are £20k on the cheaper ones ad £50K on the more reliable ones.

Cannot get crap quality if it is to be a commercial venue.....heaven forbid if they break down.

Staff and facilities.....hmmmm ever priced a commercial kitchen.....

Then on top of that most clubs do not always have living on site so......alarm systems etc etc......

Nah......it would be hundreds of thousands to set up similar.......even if you could get the ground.

And that's without any O.T. layouts what would 4 of them cost Nicola? 60 traps for a start plus the acoustic releases and computer systems, covered shooting stands the trench. Don't think you would see any change out of half a million.

 

[** Pending Removal **]

Yes quite right.

But I think that WesC might not have been there or might not be familiar with the Olympic layouts or just how much they cost in infra-structure.

He could be just thinking of a much smaller ground to replace it.....I do not know.

 

[Fuzrat]

Never shot SC, but I am really looking forward to the British open skeet there in August. I have been trawling the net for pictures and video from there to get a feel for the place already and it looks mighty impressive. A real shame for south westerners if it closes Not enough top drawer trap and skeet grounds as it is.