southern counties shooting ground to become solar farm.

[Dog Tyred]

Lets persuade the government to cut the tariffs paid for solar energy. That'll f*** um right up!! :money:

Seems strange that they invested all that money in the facilites and especially the hotel to then take away one of reasons to actually stay there??

I guess the busines hotel trade must be enough?

DT

 

[Les53]

Just heard from our county OT skipper and apparently the owner of SC is still waiting for planning consent, so maybe all is not lost yet!

 

[Moore K-80]

The place has been going down the pan for ages! No disrespect to anyone but the people on here crying over it going have not been supporting it anyway! Several recent trap shoots have had single figure entries and there is no way a ground of this size can stick that for very long! They have been far too greedy for far too long now and their prize money has been a joke, no wonder no one goes there!

 

[Hotshot100]

The place has been going down the pan for ages! No disrespect to anyone but the people on here crying over it going have not been supporting it anyway! Several recent trap shoots have had single figure entries and there is no way a ground of this size can stick that for very long! They have been far too greedy for far too long now and their prize money has been a joke, no wonder no one goes there!

I think it's a vicious circle. Money gets tight so they get less support ,so the prize money goes down, so they get even less support etc. etc. etc.

In the end the prize money's paltry and the ground is making nothing either.

You only have to look at what happened at Vilamoura when the live pigeon shooting stopped. This was their main source of income so once that went there was no longer any incentive for the casino that owned the ground to invest any further in it.It wasn't long before it became very run down and eventually closed down completely. I believe it is now part of the adjoining golf course.

 

[Moore K-80]

I think it's a vicious circle. Money gets tight so they get less support ,so the prize money goes down, so they get even less support etc. etc. etc.

In the end the prize money's paltry and the ground is making nothing either.

You only have to look at what happened at Vilamoura when the live pigeon shooting stopped. This was their main source of income so once that went there was no longer any incentive for the casino that owned the ground to invest any further in it.It wasn't long before it became very run down and eventually closed down completely. I believe it is now part of the adjoining golf course.

Yes I agree but they only paid back about £5 an entry (on a good day!) and that's crap when they are charging nearly £40 per entry! I know several shooters here locally that used to go there very frequently and they all stopped going there ages ago due to this exact reason.

 

[Les53]

Yes I agree but they only paid back about £5 an entry (on a good day!) and that's crap when they are charging nearly £40 per entry! I know several shooters here locally that used to go there very frequently and they all stopped going there ages ago due to this exact reason.

Where do those guys shoot these days? Were they trap shooters?

 

[Hotshot100]

Yes I agree but they only paid back about £5 an entry (on a good day!) and that's crap when they are charging nearly £40 per entry! I know several shooters here locally that used to go there very frequently and they all stopped going there ages ago due to this exact reason.

It's the old story unfortunately of not finding out what your customers want and then giving it to them.

We have a club locally that used to put on a good 70 bird sporting shoot usually shot over 10 stands. They used to regularly get 100+ shooters on a Sunday morning. Then it changed management and they increased it to 100 birds but still over 10 stands. Apart from the obvious increase in entry and cartridge costs because it was now more targets per stand the queues were longer and the traps ran out more frequently which obviously exacerbated the problem. A lot of their regulars got fed up with it and now on a good morning they night get 50 turn up but I have also seen it in the 30's.

I have suggested that they go back to 70 or 80 birders but get told, no, it's what the customers want. It may be that their current clientele want but what about all those that voted with their feet.

 

[Moore K-80]

Where do those guys shoot these days? Were they trap shooters?

Yes they were trap shooters ( I wont name them but 2 of them were Regular England team members ABT, UT) now they only shoot a bit of DTL and ABT at the likes of Broadmoor, Bradford etc. Its a sad truth but this sport is dying at an alarming rate!

 

[Les53]

Yes they were trap shooters ( I wont name them but 2 of them were Regular England team members ABT, UT) now they only shoot a bit of DTL and ABT at the likes of Broadmoor, Bradford etc. Its a sad truth but this sport is dying at an alarming rate!

Was one of them Pete Cole by any chance? Dying? Well in its current form, clay shooting is certainly not too healthy mate! Maybe clay shooting should start to look at itself and see where it went wrong, then hopefully try to rectify the issues!

 

[Moore K-80]

Yes Pete is a good friend of mine and used to go there quite a lot as did many others from around here. The ground owners (not all of them) have got greedy and the cost of shells, fuel etc are making it far to expensive for the average man (who probably make up90% of entries).

 

[Richard59]

The longer the planning process drags, with much of the central funding committed and the feed in tariffs being squeezed, it may not be such a major income stream as initially expected.

 

[Angelfire]

I have shot at SC several times at various large DTL events, it's always put on a good show and will be missed if it does close.

The "problem" is - man owns land, man does whatever he wants with "his" land - end of story sadly.

Phil*

 

[RobertBeard]

i would do exactly the same, and keep my trap shut until the deal had gone through officially.

Mystery solved. Im wasted here..!

"Keep my trap shut" - well it soon might be! :banghead:

 

[40UP]

There is no application on the Dorset Council Planning website.

 

[Les53]

There is no application on the Dorset Council Planning website.

Did you look on West Dorset planning or just Dorset Fred? I think the ground may come under west Dorset.

 

[ips]

Prob all rumours, we hope.

 

[ExSCA]

I did some research on this as well - using both councils to check, the only Solar Panel permissions in the public domain, was ironically a very small scale plan, for the guy that has (allegedly) complained about the lead fallout.

 

[RobertBeard]

Is it all smoke and mirrors just to make us panic so much that we'll be happy with a huge price rise if it says open!

 

[** Pending Removal **]

Bet .......anyone?

 

[Dog Tyred]

I'll have £10 each way!!

DT