Highcliffe Club has been a local hub for the neighbourhood of Highcliffe Drive, Greystones, since it was first built in the 1930s. Now, members have voted 3-to-1 for its closure. Here, one member who voted against the closure, Louise Cooper, and Lib Dem Sheffield city councillor Barbara Masters (who says she is not speaking in an official capacity) say they want to see the club saved before it is turned into flats.
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00:00 We're outside of the Highcliffe Club in Highcliffe Drive. This is a club that has the possibility of
00:05 closing or being sold now after a vote last month amongst members essentially. What's kind of the
00:11 importance of the club behind you? I feel that the club is needed for the community around it,
00:18 that people were wanting to join. They need a place for children, they need activities for
00:26 children. Families need to be encouraged because they bring in the buzz of the place, you know,
00:32 like Greystones did and activities for children, you know, to be really brought to life again.
00:39 Can you give me an idea of the history of the place behind us? Well, we've had, it was 1930s,
00:44 had memberships obviously, they've been and gone with time but they used to come here for bingo and
00:53 all the events going on, the quiz nights, race nights came in, bingo nights, you know, all
01:02 different things and bonfire nights. So anything you could think of we sort of tried to generate
01:09 but over the past few years it was sort of, things weren't encouraged this much.
01:14 This was a matter of a vote amongst members that were, did vote, there's about 80 people that voted
01:19 three to one to choose to close it. Members will get an equal share of the sales price as I
01:25 understand it. But that does leave those 20 or so members who voted to keep it and still want to see
01:31 something made out of it and they maybe want an investor to come in and sweep it off their feet
01:35 basically. What are we at risk of losing if it closes? Well, the community loses somewhere to go
01:40 to nearby, you know, and that's sort of what they need. You know, these venues are around the
01:46 country but, you know, they've got to be in local community areas, areas where you can just walk to
01:52 them, meet a friend there, play a game of snooker, whatever you want to do and something local rather
01:58 than having to go miles to get to somewhere. Okay. Barbara, you're a councillor for Sheffield City
02:03 Council but you're also a local resident. What's your interest in seeing Highcliffe stay?
02:09 Basically, sort of all over Sheffield, sort of places where people can socialise, you know, sort
02:14 of are closing down and there is a need for it. They become commercial venues which is expensive
02:24 or they've been taken over for development which is potentially the danger here. But there's nowhere
02:30 that people can meet and I think it's a valuable resource. It means it's walkable distance to quite
02:36 a large sort of number of the population. But, and I sit on committees and all the time we're told
02:44 that there's nowhere for people to meet, there's nowhere for sort of small groups to practice
02:50 whatever skills or crafts they want to practice. We're running so short of them. I mean, they rely
02:57 on church halls or school halls but they're very, very limited opening. Whereas somewhere like this,
03:02 which can be used by the community for all sorts of purposes, you know, sort of basically,
03:07 sort of seven days a week, it's such a valuable asset. It's also, it's,
03:12 when you think about what people are trying to do, which is encourage people to sort of use
03:19 the facilities within their local communities, why are we shutting a facility like this down?
03:24 Because the potential is here. It was a thriving business once it had all sorts of activities.
03:31 Once we moved onto the street, sort of, it used to be throbbing with activity, sort of, and it can
03:39 be done again. I know there's issues with the site, we know there's issues with the building,
03:44 but it needs the person with the right sort of mindset to actually look at a business case for
03:49 it, to make it something that will work for the local community. And most people want it here.
03:55 They don't want just another sort of a selection of houses, it'd be executive houses. Yes, it's a
04:02 lovely road to live on. I mean, sort of, you know, people do enjoy living here because it is very
04:09 quiet, but it means that people don't have to get in their cars to travel somewhere to socialise.
04:15 And I think that's the key thing for me.