Closing time for Bridge Club to be reviewed

KATINA CURTIS

FOUR Kiama councillors have banded together to put in a recision motion in an attempt to allow Kiama Bridge Club to keep its clubhouse open until 10.30pm.

The clubhouse will be built on a site at Bonaira playing fields if the draft plan of management is adopted.

The lack of a physical building did not hinder a long debate at last week's council meeting about what closing time would be suitable to accommodate the needs of residents and bridge players.

In the end, the recommendation by the acting director of engineering and works to make the closing time 10pm was carried.

However, councillors Warren Steel, Hamish East and Trevor Fredericks and Mayor Sandra McCarthy have lodged a recision motion to overturn this decision.

This means the matter will be reheard at the next council meeting.

Cr Steel said he was disappointed with the result at the council meeting. He had supported an amended motion to make the closing time 10.30pm, but this was defeated.

"(Putting a recision motion) goes against my grain because I don't like querying the umpire's decision, but I feel if we had had a full council there we would have won," he said.

In a submission to the council, the Bridge Club said the night sessions would be for people who worked during the day.

Club president Theo Mangos said: "10 o'clock was not quite manageable because there are people who work and by the time they get home it's hard to start earlier to finish at 10pm. If it goes ahead, I think we can quite manage 10.30pm."

The councillors who opposed a later closing time were concerned about the effect of noise on residents.

Ruth Devenney said: "To try to sleep with this type of noise is unreasonable and I think the residents have made their feelings clear in the original public access."

The club said it expected there would be 12 people using the building on Mondays, 24 on Wednesdays and 40 to 60 on Fridays.

"These people are all baby boomers plus, there's no alcohol and they're very serious people," Cr Steel said. "If it was a band playing, I could understand it, but it's not."