Sudbury Snooker Club will be nominated as a community asset in a bid to protect its future following a town council vote.
During an extraordinary meeting of Sudbury Town Council on Tuesday, August 6, members discussed a proposal by councillor Tim Regester that the Sudbury Snooker Club and Function Room in North Street should be nominated as an asset of community value.
If granted by Babergh District Council this would mean that, should the building were ever to be sold, the community would have six months to buy it before it went on the wider market.
The meeting follows a planning application by D&A Property Developers Limited which was submitted to Babergh District Council to convert the first floor into four flats.
It had more than 120 public objections and was refused by the council.
During the Sudbury Town Council meeting, cllr Adrian Stohr agreed with Mr Regester's proposal to nominate the building as a community asset.
"As a business and a community place for many organisation, it is something we should really strongly try to protect," he said.
"This is what we're here for, this is what we're elected for.
"People want a snooker club, people want these kinds of things, and to allow this to slip through our fingers would be a tragedy."
But not all councillors felt the same, and cllr Melanie Barrett said: "I won’t be supporting this. Six months could be a long time for a business owner to hang about while they are waiting for the community to put forward a bid.
"I really don’t think there is a really good case for this. I think it’s anti-business, really, which I can’t support," she added.
Tim Ayrton, founder of the Sudbury-based charity Number 72, spoke before the councillors and said he had used the facilities there on a number of occasions for community events.
He described the snooker club as a "greatly-loved" benefit to the town and if it were to close it would be a loss of a "considerable asset for this region".
A majority of councillors voted in favour of the proposal to nominate the club as an asset of community value.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here