Brighton’s oldest tennis club looks set to have been saved from development – or most of it has.
Badgers Tennis Club in Church Place, Kemp Town, was given an eviction notice by its landlords, the Chotai family, earlier this month.
The club launched a campaign calling on the family, which also owns the Kamsons pharmacy chain, to halt its plans to build flats on the site.
But the club has now agreed to stop the campaign and to resume talks with the Chotais over possibly developing one of the club’s four courts, in return for being granted the freehold for the rest of the site.
Liz Foster, Chair of the Management Committee, Badgers Tennis Club, Brighton: “I am happy to report that on behalf of the management committee I have signed an agreement with our landlords by which they will rescind the eviction notice and we will end our campaign.
“The two sides have also agreed to work towards an arrangement that would secure the club’s long-term occupancy of the site.
“In practical terms, this will mean resuming the long-running discussion of partial development, which has been in abeyance since our AGM a year ago, but with an unprecedented offer from the landlords to give us, for nothing, the freehold of the rest of the site if Court 4 were developed for housing.
“We will convene another AGM as soon as possible for members to comment and decide how to proceed. To implement our side of the agreement, we must end the campaign, so please could all of you now desist from any campaigning activity and ask others with whom you are in contact to do the same.
“I would like to express my immense gratitude to all those inside and outside the club who have enabled us to reach the current agreement.” been served with an eviction notice by its landlords.”
The club has been battling for survival since learning that their landlords, who bought the site in 2010, want to clear the site to build luxury housing.
The landlords granted a lease to the club’s head coach when a planning application ran into problems, but the head coach surrendered the lease in 2013 when the rent trebled.
The club restructured and community support pressured the landlords into granting the club a new five-year lease.
The club site, which has been a home to tennis since 1895, was listed by the council as an asset of community value in 2018 in recognition of its health and wellbeing role in east Brighton.
The tennis courts and clubhouse, in Church Place, Kemp Town, had their status as an asset of community value renewed just last month by Brighton and Hove City Council.
That year, it was given a tenancy at will with a clause allowing landlords to terminate the tenancy with two months’ notice.
But being listed as an asset of community value would not prevent the owners from applying to change the use of the land after evicting the club, even if the listing would be considered in planning application discussions.
GIFT IT TO THE CITY!!! Bipin and Bharat Chotai own Kamsons Pharmacy chain (77 pharmacies in Sussex). They should gift Badgers to the city. They can afford it.
Oh boy, you are certainly going to be surprised if you actually read the article.
Greedy developers should be prevented from using land for ‘luxury’ developments. Brighton doesn’t need them. I won’t be using Kamsons again, and am encouraging others to boycott them too.
Aren’t you you going against the express wishes of what the club has asked for? By encouraging people to boycott this company, you are making it MORE likely they’ll be evicted – is that the outcome you want? Please re read this article….
We don’t have to get nasty with the owners.Just because they own a lot of pharmacy’s.Its not all profit.
Your threat really doesn’t amount to much. Kamsons are one of the few pharmacy chains that still offer blister packs and free delivery, services that are not required by NHS contractual agreements. Looking at the latest nomination data, their numbers have been on a steady increase for some time now.
We don’t have to get nasty with the owners.Just because they own a lot of pharmacy’s.Its not all profit.