WATCH OUR STORY….
This ambitious community project is a joint venture between the Parklands Bowling Club and Parklands Rugby Club. We think it’s a unique story…. so we made a video about it!
This ambitious community project is a joint venture between the Parklands Bowling Club and Parklands Rugby Club. We think it’s a unique story…. so we made a video about it!
The Parklands Bowling Club was established in 1992 and has a strong membership of 170. The Club’s facilities were badly impacted by the 2011 earthquakes, with both greens badly affected by liquefaction and their pavilion building damaged beyond repair. The greens have undergone extensive repairs and are now fully operational. In the last few years the club has welcomed players from the South Brighton and Linwood Bowling Clubs, which were both left without premises after the earthquakes. The Club has shown a willingness to reinvent itself for the benefit of the wider community, by embarking on this joint venture with Parklands Rugby Football Club, which has also suffered significant disruption post-earthquake.
The Parklands Rugby Club (a junior-only club with 250+ members) has been displaced from its home clubrooms for the past 3 years. They are a vibrant and family-focussed club whose fortnightly social events regularly draw over 500 mums, dads, grandparents, boys and girls from across the area.
For more information about the founding clubs visit their websites: Parklands Bowls Club or Parklands Rugby Club
A few years ago the two clubs joined forces to explore the opportunities of building shared clubrooms. After investigating various options they were forced to rule out a new build as being cost prohibitive. However, in a stroke of genius, they identified two ideally suited buildings at the nearby (and now closed) Freeville School. The two buildings – a fifteen year old School Hall and an eight year old Modern Learning Studio – were earmarked for demolition but have since been gifted to the clubs by the Ministry of Education.
In May 2017 the buildings were relocated onto the Bowling Club’s site in Chadbury Street. With some relatively minor restructuring, the buildings are now being redeveloped into a multi-use sports and recreation centre. The Pūkeko Centre will not only provide clubrooms for the two founding partner clubs but will also provide a range of indoor and outdoor spaces that other community and sports groups can utilise. The adjacent Parkview Primary will also be able to make good use of the new facilities.
Stage 1 of the project is now fully funded. Further sponsorship will however be required to realise the full vision for the Centre.
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