Historic Peterborough sports club to become medical centre car park

The Parkway Sports & Leisure Club in Lincoln Road, New England, will close on October 26 after being bought by the nearby Thistlemoor Medical Practice.

The sale will lead to the closure of the clubhouse used by Peterborough Sports, which last weekend moved one win away from entering the FA Cup main draw for the first time.

The non-league football club said in a statement that it is in discussions to move the clubhouse to within the boundary of its ground where it holds a long term lease until 2057.

“Whilst it is undoubtedly a sad day in respect of the clubhouse, the reality is that it is past its sell by date,” it said.

“In fairness to Parkway PSL Ltd we were offered the opportunity to buy the facility ourselves, but the funding required for such an investment was a million miles away from the level of finance we have available to us.

“We are looking at this as another bump in the road and a challenge that we are meeting head on and are confident that coming out of the back of this will be the huge benefit of having our own modern clubhouse on which we retain all of the income.”

The club plays host to a number of darts, crib and snooker teams which will now need to find new homes.

Charles Swift, president of Parkway PSL Ltd, which is selling the club, said: “The clubhouse has been there 80 years - it was the former Brotherhoods club. The Parkway club took it over when it was sold and put in £300,000 to renovate the sports field which was a derelict open space.”

Mr Swift, a former mayor and city councillor, said a meeting is being held on Sunday to iron out any unresolved issued.

This includes a row over parking which he described as a “storm in a tea cup” after Peterborough Sports said it was “in the midst of legal proceedings” against both Parkway PSL Ltd and the medical centre. Visitors to Peterborough Sports have been finding themselves issued with parking charge notices after cameras were installed.

Mr Swift said people had been parking in the sports field and leaving it in an “appalling state”, while the football club insisted that the fines being issued by a private firm, are “illegal” and that it has a “right to park on our own land as a minimum protection”.

Mr Swift, who was also speaking on behalf of the medical centre, insisted that visitors to the football club can insert their vehicle registration numbers into a machine to avoid a fine, and that anyone who had forgotten to do so has been reimbursed.