New Anniesland care home approved by councillors which will 'safeguard' local bowling club

Glasgow’s planning committee has backed a recommendation from council officials to approve Morrison Community Care’s proposal to provide a 58-bed residential home on land at Yarrow Recreation Ground.

The home, which will include a champagne bar and cinema room, can be built on a site which includes two former tennis courts and a bowling green.

Now planning consent has been secured, landowners BAE Systems are set to sell the clubhouse and a remaining bowling green to Yarrow Bowling Club for just £1.

BAE Systems owns the Anniesland Road recreation club and its assets, but the application revealed bowling club members had been presented with a “once in a lifetime opportunity” which was capable of “safeguarding their future.”

The bowling club will also get a “share of the proceeds from the sale of the surplus land” to “enable them to enhance the retained facilities and sustain the long-term viability of the club.”

Morrison Community Care will buy the land from BAE Systems and intends to provide a community garden, private residents’ garden with a putting green, a cafe, champagne bar, hair salon and cinema room.

However, neighbours raised several issues with the council, including concerns over noise, privacy, insufficient parking and the impact on road safety.

Others claimed the proposed building would be too close to existing homes and four-storey height is “unacceptable.” Among the 38 objectors, were three Glasgow councillors: Cllr Eunis Jassemi and Cllr Patricia Ferguson, both Labour, and Cllr Lana Reid-McConnell, Green.

A council planner told the committee that it is “definitely the biggest building in the area” and would be a “storey taller than the existing three-storey flats.”

However, he said officials did not believe the site was being over developed. “The design is quite holistic,” he said. “The massing of that building has been broken up, the impact on neighbours has been assessed. 

“It is sufficiently distanced from the neighbours, it’s got the right amount of car parking, it’s got enough amenity space that it can actually give publicly accessible amenity space. We think that four-storey is acceptable even though that’s a little bit taller than anything else.”

A 12-space car park will be provided as well as a visitor cycle shelter for eight bikes. Staff would have access to a cycle shelter for four bikes.

Officials reported the car park meets “minimums standards”, of eight spaces, and the site can be accessed by bus and train.

Bailie James Scanlon, Labour, said he was a “wee bit saddened to see the loss of another bowling green but if it secures the future of the club, I’m okay with that.”

He added: “It looks to be a good application, I am fully supportive of it.”

The planning committee unanimously approved the application. The developers will need to pay £120,000 as compensation for the loss of the tennis courts, following a request from Sport Scotland.