southern counties shooting ground to become solar farm.

[snipey]

Haha Nicola very good! Politics is all we have left here in the south west, that and straw balers!

 

[Les53]

Looks like I will have to venture up to Cheddar to shoot OT. Other than that it's going to be Axminster for DTL and maybe a bit of ABT, but they only open every two weeks on a Saturday, but I mostly shoot in the week! This is not good news for Dorset trap shooters or skeet shooters, the sporting boys should be OK because they have always had more places to shoot, even if they are are straw bale shoots! I have no idea what will happen to the county OT team once this comes about, but I guess I will find out soon enough! :fie:

 

[Hotshot100]

Who cares about meetings.....that would be politics.....and we are all bored with that......we just want to go out and shoot :smile:

Well said Nicola. Isn't this exactly what happens when people won't get involved in the politics

Reading between the lines I believe that there is a LOT more to this than meets the eye especially now that we know that the farmer and the ground owner are apparently in the solar farm project together. :spiteful: :spiteful: :crazy:

I don't think we'll ever know the full truth.

 

[Les53]

Well said Nicola. Isn't this exactly what happens when people won't get involved in the politics

Reading between the lines I believe that there is a LOT more to this than meets the eye especially now that we know that the farmer and the ground owner are apparently in the solar farm project together. :spiteful: :spiteful: :crazy:

I don't think we'll ever know the full truth.

I wonder if the farmer is the same guy that was shouting about the shot deposits on his land? At the end of the day, if a landowner can make more money by changing the use of his land, well he is going to do it whether we like it or not. I doubt that politics would have had any influence on this one unfortunately Rog, the guy that owns the ground is well known down here and has various business interests as far as I'm aware. Even if somebody offered to buy the ground, he may not accept because he would have a stack of cash that would then need to be re invested into something else so as to generate a profit. As you rightly say, I don't think we will ever know the truth, and to be honest it really is none of our business, other than the fact that many of us are his customers, but I doubt if that will be of any concerne to him mate!!!! :no:

 

[tiptop]

Nail on the head there Les...really is none of our business what people do with their land.

Still a shame to possibly be losing a ground though.

 

[paulos]

Do you get a lot of solar energy through dense fog...?

 

[Les53]

Do you get a lot of solar energy through dense fog...?

 Bloody brilliant! Love it!!!! :biggrin:

 

[Hawkeye]

Quite right Les , none of our business

 

[40UP]

Plenty of room at Southern Counties without closing the shooting grounds. Keep your eye on the cleared area to the right of the hotel.

 

[Salopian]

Well said Fred.

Maybe we should actually mind our own business, because for sure we don't have the cash or representation to influence any decision making.

As they often say , " Watch this space".

 

[Les53]

Plenty of room at Southern Counties without closing the shooting grounds. Keep your eye on the cleared area to the right of the hotel.

 I hope to find out more news when I hear from our OT skipper, which should be tomorrow I hope, he was at the committee meeting last week. I'm not even sure how much of that land comes into the plan to be honest, I just hope we are all worrying over nothing Fred! 

 

[Jan Powell]

Can't see as it's got naff all to do with the CPSA if the ground/land owner and the farmer next door can make more out of a solar panel farm then there is nothing anybody can do about it. 

I'm not blaming the CPSA for the closure. Clearly, if they're determined to sell there's nothing the CPSA or any other governing body can do to stop them.  The problem is, they don't engage their members in any sort of discussion or make any attempt to clarify what they're doing to try to avert a closure. As a consequence and quite understandably, it leaves members thinking they're doing nothing. The closure of what is one the UK's premier grounds is a big issue, not only for those that live in the south west. It's astonishing that on the brink of closure there's been no 'official' mention of it.

 

[tiptop]

Yes, i can understand that point as well.

 

[Hawkeye]

Shot fallout on neighbouring land is one thing , shot fallout on panels is another

 

[Les53]

I'm not blaming the CPSA for the closure. Clearly, if they're determined to sell there's nothing the CPSA or any other governing body can do to stop them.  The problem is, they don't engage their members in any sort of discussion or make any attempt to clarify what they're doing to try to avert a closure. As a consequence and quite understandably, it leaves members thinking they're doing nothing. The closure of what is one the UK's premier grounds is a big issue, not only for those that live in the south west. It's astonishing that on the brink of closure there's been no 'official' mention of it.

Unfortunately our sport is largely in the hands of businesses, not member owned/run clubs. I guess that any official mention of what is to happen will have to come from the ground owners, all the CPSA would be able to do would be to comment on it. Yes it would be a huge blow to South West shooters and to the whole of shooting in this country, I seriously doubt that SC could be replaced in the West, well not unless someone with shed loads of cash is willing to step up to the plate, and that is highly unlikely. Even if a person with plenty of cash were to step forward, there would still be the issue of planning consent! Our sport is not exactly well thought of with local councils in the UK, so I doubt that a replacement is going to be on the cards anytime soon.

 

[RobertBeard]

I will have to wait and see how everything pans out, but the way things are looking I'm seriously considering a shooting 'retirement'!

Once SC closes that leaves 2 'local' skeet grounds:

- brook bank who are rumoured to have said that try will put there prices up once SC closes, the value for money side of me would question this!

- Broadmoor an ok/cheap little ground, but very affected by the weather and closes for 4 months during the game season.

Shooting comps twice a month is not going to be enough!

In fact the only other disciple which maybe slightly more viable would be 'nodding dog'/dtl, but I have no interest in that!

Ashcombe has a skeet layout but they don't do any registered comps but I expect you already know that

 

[snipey]

Cheers Robert! Yeah I use Ashcombe for practise along with Steve Lings at Nynehead, Wellington.

Unfortunately I don't get the same level of concentration/nerves whilst practising and I'm in this game for the competition! I have enjoyed shooting the local clubs/straw balers over the last 5 years but for me they don't compare to competition!

I won't be making any hasty decisions because I have invested a lot of money into getting better, but things aren't looking good!

 

[Les53]

Cheers Robert! Yeah I use Ashcombe for practise along with Steve Lings at Nynehead, Wellington.

Unfortunately I don't get the same level of concentration/nerves whilst practising and I'm in this game for the competition! I have enjoyed shooting the local clubs/straw balers over the last 5 years but for me they don't compare to competition!

I won't be making any hasty decisions because I have invested a lot of money into getting better, but things aren't looking good!

Well let's see how it goes mate! We could all still be wrong, only the owners REALLY know what's going to happen at SC. But I do agree, things are not looking good at all.

 

[snipey]

Les, where and what do you shoot?

 

[Les53]

Les, where and what do you shoot?

My local ground is SC, I shoot OT, but I may be forced to shoot DTL or ABT at Axminster, other that it will mean shooting up at Cheddar. I also shoot mainly on weekdays, but Axminster does not operate in the week, they only open every two weeks on a Saturday, so that's a bit of a pain!